Rin's Return
by thebookwormandtheskater
Summary: Rin, Kakashi's old teamate, returns after 16 years...and brings her two teenage kids with her. They end up taking the Chuunin Exams, with Sasuke as a teammate. Kakashi/Rin Sakura/OC Sasuke/OC
1. Prologue

**(A/N Hi, everyone! We're the bookworm and the skater. This is our first fanfic, so we're not really sure how it will turn out…but we'll try to give you a good story! Oh, and the bookworm has a separate account under the name megcabotreader, but there are no fanfic's under it.**

**WARNING!: We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers**

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did, Sakura would have kicked Sasuke's ass and hooked up with Itachi by now.**

**Summary: Rin, Kasashi's old teammate, returns after sixteen years…and brings her two teenage kids with her. Kakashi/Rin, Sakura/OC, Sasuke/OC.)**

Rin's Return

Prologue

Three figures walked through the gates of Konoha, heading toward the Hokage's tower. _I'm finally home_, thought the one in the middle with a smile.

**In Konoha:**

"So, Teme, when are you going to get yourself a girlfriend and lighten up?" Asked Naruto in his usual loud way. "Shut _up_, Dobe," replied Sasuke, while trying to ignore the stares the pair were receiving.

"What? I'm just asking. I mean, I have Hinata, and Sakura had Sai before they broke up. Even Lee has Gaara, as strange as that is," Naruto continued. "You haven't even tried."

"Hn," Sasuke replied. When he dated was his business. He hadn't even had time anyway. The Hokage was "punishing" him by making him help around the village, and when he wasn't doing that he was training to make sure that he kept in shape, since he wasn't allowed on any missions outside of the village.

"Hey guy's," said Sakura as Naruto and Sasuke walked into Ichiraku Ramen. She had agreed to dinner with them, since they didn't get to spend much time with each other anymore, what with Sakura working in the hospital, Sasuke helping around the village, and Naruto spending time with Hinata.

After they ordered, Sakura asked what they had been talking about.

"Nothing,"

"Sasuke getting a date," they said at the same time. Sasuke fixed Naruto with a glare and he dropped it.

"Nothing," Naruto said resignedly. Sasuke really hadn't changed much since he came back from the leaf village. He had killed Orochimaru, and was on his way to kill his brother when he found out the truth about why his clan was killed and why his brother had to do it under orders of the leaf village. Despite what many people would expect, he wasn't mad at Konoha. He came back and was welcomed by the rookie nine and team Gai, if no one else. His punishment was helping out around the village and not being able to leave it for a year. He had apologized to Sakura, and she, in turn, had confided that her "crush" was really just a way to make Ino jealous. She had only ever really thought of him as a friend and teammate. Now at seventeen, he was much like he was before he left the leaf village.

Naruto was still the same loud, exuberant blond that he always was. He still aspired to become Hokage and was working as hard as he could to achieve that goal. He is a jounin, and could have been an ANBU if he hadn't turned it down because of Hinata. Hinata had finally admitted her crush, between many stutters, and Naruto realized that he felt the same way.

Sakura was now the best medic in Konoha. She passed Tsunade in terms of healing and super strength, making her a great asset to the leaf village. She rarely left the hospital, as she was the head medic. She was a jounin, and also could have been and ANBU if she hadn't turned it down in favor of the hospital. She had dated Sai for about two months before they mutually agreed that it wasn't working and broke up.

The three friends talked and laughed as they ate, not knowing that their mostly uniform lives were about the change.

**( A/N So, there's the prologue! We really hope that you liked it! The characters might be a little OOC, but we're going to try to keep them in character as much as possible! Please review! We want to know how we're doing!)**

**Thebookwormandtheskater**


	2. Chapter One

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto, if we did, Sakura would have never had a crush on Sasuke.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

Rin's Return

Chapter One

"Hokage-sama, there's someone to see you," said messenger. "Send them in," Tsunade replied. The messenger left and the door opened, revealing a woman, a girl, and boy. The girl and the boy looked to be the same age, while the woman was older. Tsunade looked at their faces and gasped. "Rin…" she said.

"Hokage-sama," Rin bowed as she greeted her. She looked much different than when she had last seen her. Her dark brown hair was longer, wavy and down to her lower back. Her dark green eyes sparkled. She wore a sleeveless dress the color of her eyes over a long sleeved fishnet shirt. The dress reached a few inches above her knees and had slits up the side that showed tight black shorts underneath. She wore a weapons pouch and had on black shoes.

"Rin, what are you doing here? You had a deal with the third that you wouldn't enter the village again. Has something happened?"

"No, Hokage-sama, nothing bad, anyway. We have merely run out of places to go." At the word "we" Tsunade looked at the two people accompanying her. They looked to be sixteen, a boy and a girl. The boy had dark brown hair left long with bangs that swept over one eye. His eyes, or the one she could see, were dark gray. He wore baggy black shorts that went to his knees with a tight navy blue shirt under a black jacket, much like Naruto's orange one, that was left open. He wore a weapons pouch and navy blue shoes. He also wore a pair of navy blue wrist length gloves that were a lot like Sakura's.

The girl had white/silver hair that reached her shoulders and was layered. She had dark green eyes like Rin. She wore a tight black skirt with navy shorts underneath. Her shirt was tight and sleeveless in navy blue, with a long sleeved fishnet shirt over it. She also wore a weapons pouch and had black shoes.

Tsunade figured that they were twins, and also figured that they were Rin's children, mostly because they were traveling with her, but also because of their resemblance to her. Rin bowed again and said "Excuse me, Hokage-sama, for not introducing you. This is my daughter, Misaki," she bowed at the sound of her name. "And my son Yuuto," he also bowed. "They are twins, and both sixteen," Rin continued.

"Who's…?" the Hokage ventured. "I would rather not say, Hokage-sama," Rin said. "Yes, I understand," Tsunade said. "Now why, exactly, are you here?" she asked. "As I said before, Hokage-sama, we have run out of places to go. I have been traveling for sixteen years, as you know, and I believe that I have been everywhere that I ever wanted to go. I've helped countless people with the help of my children. Now, I just really wanted to be home. I also thought that it would be good for my children if they could take the Chuunin exams to see what rank they are, as they can't take them without being part of a village."

"Well, I am certainly happy to see that you haven't gotten yourself in any trouble, though I can't say I am happy that you are here," Tsunade said. "You promised the Third that you wouldn't enter the village again if he agreed to your terms when you left. It was your choice and your word. He didn't question why you wanted the village to think you were dead, nor did he question why you wanted to leave the village at all. This was because he trusted you, and he trusted your word! Why would you betray that trust?"

"Please listen to me, Tsunade-sama," Rin said. "I was young, and when I found out that I was pregnant I panicked and I ran. It was a rash, last minute decision that I now regret. When I think of how much different my life could have been if I had just told everyone, I regret everything. What's done is done and I can't go back, but I had hoped that if I came here now, I could get a taste of what it would have been like, and I would be able to introduce my children to the village that I grew up in and love." _And their father, _she added silently.

After a pause, Tsunade decided what to do. "If you insist on staying, then there is nothing that I can do to stop you. I will make one request of you though. The village is not to know that you are here and alive. You will be under constant genjustu, as I know that this is in your ability. You will also be given the name Rai so that you can be reminded of how much I trust you to keep your identity a secret."

"Thank you Tsunade-sama, I will agree to your conditions, but what of my children?" Rin asked.

"Because your children have never been in the leaf village, nor does anyone here know them to be your children, they may stay the way they are, and keep their names. You may also work in the hospital, as I know that you are a great medic, while your children are being trained and tested by three of the most accomplished young ninja in the village: Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke has also not yet taken the chuunin exams, though he is seventeen, because of a long absence from the village. He will be the third person in the three man cell with your children while they're taking the exams."

"Thank you, once again, Hokage-sama. I have the perfect genjutsu already planned, I'll show it to you now." Rin then transformed. She kept her clothes, but gave herself short black hair and dark brown eyes. She also changed her features. Instead of looking to be in her mid thirties, she looked to be in her mid twenties, with more curves than her previously boyish figure. Rin looked more like a mentor to her children than their mother. "Very good, _Rai_," Tsunade said. "That will be a perfect disguise," she continued. Just as she was about to say something else, Kakashi popped in through the window.

"Yo," he said with a wave, his visible eye creased. Rin gave a start at is sudden appearance. She hadn't seen him in sixteen years, and he was much the same as he was before she left. She longed for him to know who she really was, but remembered her agreement with the hokage.

"Ah, Kakashi, just who I was about to call for," Tsunade said. "This is Rai, she would like her two pupils Misaki and Yuuto to take the Chuunin Exams. They are both sixteen, and from what I understand, very accomplished ninja. I thought it fitting for Sasuke to be on their team, and for he, Naruto, and Sakura to train them. Would you please introduce them and explain the situation?"

"Of course, Tsunade-sama. I believe that they are at Ichiraku Ramen, where I was on my way too when I realized that I had to give you this mission report," he finished with another smile and walked out, motioning for Misaki and Yuuto to join him.

**Well, there's chapter one! I know that there really wasn't much beside Tsunade and Rin talking, but we'll make it up to you in the next one! What do you think of Sasuke being on the same team as them? And who could be the father of Misaki and Yuuto? That should be easy to figure out! Oh and for those of you who don't know, Rai mean's trust in Japanese (at least that's what the website said!).**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	3. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto, if we did Itachi would still be alive.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Two

Misaki was curious about Kakashi. As far a she could tell, he was a walking contradiction. He wore the outfit of a jounin, yet he walked with a slouch. Tsunade had treated him with respect, yet before they were even out of Hokage Tower he was reading that horrible Icha Icha book that her brother loved so much. She just didn't get it. Yuuto was also thinking about Kakashi, but that was mostly because he was dying to ask him where he had gotten the "special addition hasn't been released yet" addition of Icha Icha Paradise.

Both of the twins were forced to stop their musings when it appeared that they were at their destination. It looked like an ordinary Ramen Shop, and Misaki could see the outline of three figures through the curtains. Kakashi walked in and the twins followed.

"Kakashi-sensei you're late!" they heard a loud blond say as they walked in. "Shut up Naruto, you should be used to it by now," said the boy with the duck butt hairstyle. "Well, you see, there was this cat-" he was broken off mid sentence by the pink haired girl saying, "We've heard it before Kaka-sensei, stop lying!" It was then that they saw that Kakashi wasn't alone. They immediately looked sheepish.

"Hi, I'm Haruno Sakura," said the girl with the pink hair. She continued with: "This is Uzumaki Naruto," gesturing to the blond boy. "And this is Uchiha Sasuke," pointing to the boy with the duck butt hairstyle. Misaki thought it polite to introduce themselves. "I'm Misaki, and this is my twin brother Yuuto."

"Misaki and Yuuto are here to take the Chuunin Exams. Tsunade thought it fitting that Sasuke be on their team. You three will be training and testing them until then," Kakashi said. Sasuke blinked a few times when Kakashi mentioned the part about him being on their team, but other then that didn't show any emotion. Sakura smiled at them encouragingly, and Naruto looked like his eyes were about to pop strait out of their sockets.

"You mean you want us to _train _them?" Naruto said.

"Thank you captain obvious," Misaki muttered under her breath. She couldn't help it; something about Naruto rubbed her the wrong way. _Sasuke_ on the other hand...well, she'd just have to wait until she learned more about him, then she could decide whether to ask him out or jump him on the spot.

Yuuto elbowed his sister in the ribs when he heard her comment. He didn't want to make a bad impression on the people who were supposed to be "the most accomplished young ninja of the village," as Tsunade put it. He especially didn't want Sakura to think badly of them. There was something about that pink hair…he couldn't keep his eyes off it.

"Yes, Naruto. Tsunade wants you to train them until it's time to take the Chuunin Exams," Kakashi said, once again.

"Fine…" Naruto grumbled, not looking too happy about it.

"Maybe we should figure out who's going to train who," Sakura said. "Tell us your abilities and what you specialize in." By now they had all sat down, and Kakashi, Misaki, and Yuuto were waiting for their food.

Misaki started, "I specialize in Taijutsu, I know a bit about healing, and I can summon dogs," Kakashi was surprised when he heard that, it being one of his trademarks. Sasuke realized that because she specialized in Taijutsu, _his _specialty, he was going to have to train her. He gave a sigh and had to restrain himself from saying that it was troublesome. Then Yuuto said, " I specialize in Genjutsu, and am a medical ninja," Sakura was happy at the thought of another medic to train with, and a good one at that if Tsunade thought that they should be on Sasuke's team.

"See Naruto, you probably won't really have to train them. Just Sasuke and I, though we may need you to teach them some ninjutsu, since neither of them specialize in it and you do," Sakura said. Naruto looked a lot happier when he heard that. _Yes! More time with Hinata! _he said/shouted to himself. Sakura continued, " Yuuto, I'm going to be primarily training you, since I am also a medical ninja. Sasuke will primarily be training Misaki, since he is a taijutsu specialist.

Misaki and Yuuto were happy with the way things turned out, both because of who was training them and what they specialized in. They ate and got to know them a little better. They learned that Sakura was head medic, and that Naruto wanted to be Hokage. They also learned that Sasuke had just gotten back from a multi year village betrayal…but he cam back willingly, and the Hokage trusted him.

Somehow this made Misaki more curious about Sasuke. After all…every girl loves a bad boy.

* * *

**There's chapter two! We hope that some of Misaki and Yuuto's personality got through. We picture Misaki as the loud one and Yuuto as the quiet one. We hope that we can develope their characters more fully in the coming chapters.**


	4. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did, Karin wouldn't exist.**

**Warning!: We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Three

The next day, Sakura met up with Misaki and Yuuto and led them to the old Team Seven training grounds. Sasuke and Naruto were already there.

"Okay," Sakura said, "Let's start by seeing how good you are. Misaki, you go on over and wait with Sasuke while I spar with Yuuto." Misaki nodded and stood by Sasuke. Sakura moved across from Yuuto and they got into fighting position.

"Ready?" Sakura asked. "Hai," Yuuto answered.

Sakura came at him with her fist raised, ready to punch him. Yuuto sidestepped her while simultaneously using a chakra scalpel to sever the chakra pathways to her right arm. He then went for a kick, which Sakura blocked with her left hand. He continued to attack her with taijutsu, forcing her to defend herself.

_Damn it, _Sakura thought, _He's forcing me to use my left arm so I can't heal my right one. _

Yuuto faked a punch with his left hand, using his right to sever the chakra pathways in her left arm. He grabbed a kunai and held it to her neck from behind.

"Game over," he said. "Not quite," Sakura answered before disappearing in a swirl of cherry blossoms.

"Genjutsu…" Yuuto muttered. He quickly released it, wondering how it was put on him without his noticing. He didn't have long to wonder though. As soon as he was out of the genjutsu Sakura came at him with a kick. He grabbed her ankle, but she put her hands on the ground and used her other foot. He grabbed that ankle too. She was now in a handstand with him holding her ankles. She went into a front flip, using her feet to propel him over her and onto his back.

Yuuto got up and did the hand signs for the jutsu that he created. It basically made him invisible, but not just to the eyes. It made him virtually unable to be detected by all five senses. It was a form of genjutsu that only changed one element of the surrounding area. Whatever he chose could become invisible. This gave him time to think without the worry of being attacked if he was disguising himself, or it could come in handy do hide a weapon.

Sakura was slightly unnerved when she couldn't find Yuuto, She didn't know how someone could hide themselves so completely. Since she had tried to find him and failed, she thought that maybe she could force him out. She channeled chakra to her fist and punched the ground, creating a large fissure. Yuuto appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, but she wasn't sure if it was because of her punch.

Yuuto was surprised when Sakura created the fissure. He had, of course, heard of her super strength, but he didn't think that it could do _that_. It had surprised him so much that he had momentarily lost concentration and let go of his jutsu. He jumped in a wide arch to avoid the fissure, landing behind Sakura. Sakura back flipped and made a twist in the air, landing about a foot away and facing him. She went for a low kick at his legs, aiming to literally sweep him off his feet, but he dodged and countered her attack with a punch. They continued to fight with taijutsu until Sakura used a chakra scalpel of her own to cut off the chakra to his right leg, making it impossible for him to stand. She took a kunai from her pouch and was behind him with a blink of an eye with it to his neck.

"Game over," she said with a smirk. Yuuto nodded and she released him, letting him heal his leg and the bruises he had while she did the same. "I have to say," she said, "I'm very impressed with how you did. Not many people can use the chakra scalpel while in combat." Yuuto knew that first hand. It had taken him over a year to get it right, and he had chakra control that was above average.

"You're going to have to teach me how you disappeared like that. I couldn't detect you at all."

"That was the point." Sakura nodded, recognizing that this was all that she was going to get out of him today. She hadn't been on a team with Sasuke for nothing.

"Okay Sasuke," Sakura said, "Your turn."

**

* * *

****Okay! There's chapter three! That was my first fight scene **_**ever **_**so you guys need to tell me if it completely sucked, because I'm writing Misaki and Sasuke's fight too! Please Review!**


	5. Chapter Four

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto If we did, Jiraiya would still be alive.**

**Warning! We read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers!**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Four

"Okay Sasuke," Sakura said, "Your turn."

Sasuke motioned for Misaki to follow him and get into position. Misaki was more than ready. Seeing her brother's fight made her anxious for hers. "You're going down," she said with a smirk.

"Hn," Sasuke said/grunted with a smirk of his own. In the blink of an eye he was behind her with his sword on her neck. He smirked and she…went poof. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in annoyance as feminine laughter was heard around the clearing.

"Come on, you can do better than _that_," he heard, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from. Suddenly he was being attacked by fists and feet alike. For a few seconds, all he could do was defend himself, then he gained the upper hand by going for a low kick to her legs, effectively distracting her and enabling him to do a fire jutsu. The jutsu created a barrier around him when he spun around, forcing his opponent back, which gave him the distance he needed to create a fireball.

Misaki did just what Sasuke expected her to do when he first created the barrier, but then she did something unexpected. Instead of staying back and waiting it out, she used a water jutsu to put out the flames. The jutsu created strong waves like you would see far out in the ocean. Misaki learned this technique from some traveling ninja that she, her mother, and Yuuto had traveled with by boat. They were very learned in water jutsu.

Misaki was brought back to reality by Sasuke coming at her with his sword. She pulled out a kunai and blocked all of his attacks with it, getting a few hits in between defenses. She was no weapons master, but she knew how to hold her own.

When Sasuke realized that this was going nowhere fast, he jumped back and did a summoning jutsu, summoning his snakes. Misaki likewise summoned her dogs. Sasuke had six snakes. His python, Katsu, was the only one that could talk. When the smoke cleared, he looked around, and realizing that there was no real danger, became annoyed.

"You summon us for a _spar_?" he said it like it was something disgusting on the bottom of his metaphorical shoe.

"I am your master I can summon you when I wish," Sasuke replied. Katsu scoffed, but didn't say anything else.

Misaki had five dogs. Her Swedish Vallhund**, **Hisa, was the first dog that she had summoned, and the only one that could talk. She was small, but she had more strength than you would think, and always did her best to protect her master. Misaki also had an American Pitt Bull Terrier named Usagu, a Bull Mastiff named Tetsu, a Shikoku named Sumi, and a Lapponian Herder named Tomoko. They were all female. Hisa was much more receptive to the summons than Katsu.

"I've been meaning to get some exercise in," she said.

"Glad to hear it," Misaki said, "Because I think you'll have a worthy opponent."

"Snakes…. I haven't fought snakes in a long time," Hisa said, almost like she was lost in thought. The sight of one coming toward them broke her out of her reverie and she literally barked out orders. Sumi stepped forward, thinking of the best way to take the snake out. The snake sped up, fangs pointed, aiming for Sumi's leg. Sumi dodged and came around, biting the snake right behind the head, but not killing it.

It continued like this for a while. Every time a snake would attack, a dog would stop it. Every time a dog would attack, a snake would stop it. Both Sasuke and Misaki realized that this wasn't going anywhere. After a while, they called back their animals and told them that they could leave. Katsu left without a word, still annoyed that he was called on for a spar. Hisa left with a jovial, "Thanks for the exercise, see you soon!"

Now Sasuke and Misaki were back to square one. They continued with taijutsu, but they weren't getting anywhere. After a while, they called a truce. Sasuke was a bit surprised that Misaki had kept up with him so long. Misaki thought that she could have probably gone longer, but didn't want to say so. Sakura called them back over.

"We are impressed with both of you," she said. "You did even better than I thought you would do. Yuuto, you show a great talent in medical jutsu, and your chakra control is close to mine. Misaki, you fight well with taijutsu, even giving Sasuke a run for his money," Sasuke scowled and they laughed. "You both show promise when it comes to ninjutsu, but it's obvious that you have never studied it extensively," at this the twins nodded, knowing that they only had a few jutsu's that they could perform well. Sakura continued, "We are going to change that. This is where Naruto comes in."

Naruto stepped forward. " You guys did great! The look on the teme's face was priceless when he had to call that truce! Anyway, I'm going to teach you guys my favorite jutsu! The shadow clone jutsu!" The twins looked at each other warily. Could he really _teach_ them? He seemed like someone who would get impatient when they couldn't get it right the first time.

Surprisingly, Naruto turned out to be a pretty good teacher. He pointed out and fixed mistakes without complaint, and waited patiently for them to understand. By the time they left, the twins were beat. Not only had they sparred with two very good ninja, they had learned a jutsu that used up all of their chakra. When they got to the inn they were staying in with their mom, they went to bed without even changing their clothes.

* * *

Rin came home completely happy after her hospital shift. No one had suspected who she was and she go a lot of praise from the other medics. She was happy to be treating people in a hospital again. She hadn't seen Kakashi again, but that was probably for the best. He would probably see through her genjutsu eventually, and that would be bad. She looked in on her children, then went to her own room.

_I hope he doesn't hate me_, were her last thoughts before sleep overtook her.

* * *

**Well, there's chapter four! Wow, that was hard to write! We know our chapters have been really short lately, so we want to give you guys a choice. Tell us in a review if you would rather us put out short chapters more often or long chapters less often. It's up to you!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**

**P.S. We're pretty inexperienced when it comes to Japanese names, so if we got anything wrong we're sorry!**


	6. Chapter Five

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Naruto would have found out that his father was the fourth already.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Five

Rin walked down the street, humming softly on her way to the hospital. It always made her happy to know that she was on her way to help people. She, Misaki, and Yuuto had been in Konoha for about a month now, and they were starting to settle into their way of life.

Misaki and Yuuto got up early every morning and went down to the training grounds. Either Sasuke, Sakura, or Naruto was there to help them train, sometimes all of them. They would take a break to eat lunch, then continue with their training until dinner when they would come home and study whatever was assigned. Mostly medical scrolls for Yuuto and weapons techniques for Misaki. Then they would go to bed and start the whole thing over again in the morning. It was tiresome, but it was worth it.

Rin also had a schedule. She would get up at the same time as the twins and head to the hospital, where she would work a full days shift, taking her lunch there when she had time. She mostly worked in emergency situations, though she sometimes treated common illnesses if she was needed. She got home about an hour earlier than the twins every night and made dinner. After they ate she would do anything else that needed to be done around the house and go to bed. It was very fulfilling to work in the hospital, and she wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

She stopped and looked around, surprised to find that she was at the hospital already. Her musings had distracted her. She walked in and was immediately bombarded with nurses.

"Oh, thank God you're..."

"There's been an emer…"

"We need you in the…"

Rin held up a hand to stop the onslaught. Immediately the nurses stopped talking.

"Now, one at a time tell me what's going on," she said calmly. She pointed at one of the nurses to start talking.

"There's been an emergency. A ninja is injured very badly and neither Tsunade nor Sakura are here," the nurse said. Rin knew that Sakura wasn't there, she was with the twins this morning.

"Okay, now what do you need me to do?" Rin asked. The second nurse started talking as they walked, "We need you in room 63C to heal him. The other doctors have been doing as much as they can, but they don't have the skills that you do." By now they were on the third floor, intensive care, and on there way to room 63. When they reached the door the third nurse walked in with Rin.

"He's been here for about forty-five minutes. He just got back from an S ranked mission and was sent directly here. Knowing him, if he wasn't unconscious he probably wouldn't even be here right now," she said. She continued, but Rin barely heard her. In front of her was Kakashi. The only way she could recognize him was because of his hair, even though it was matted with blood. He had a gaping hole in his abdomen, scratches all over his body, what looked like a broken wrist, broken ribs, and a bone coming out of his right leg. How he got back to the village was a mystery. Rin put all of her personal feelings behind her and got to work, quizzing the team of doctors on what they had done to him already.

She started on the hole in his abdomen, remaking the flesh and healing his stomach and intestines. Then she went to work on his ribs. If one punctured a lung it could kill him. After that she healed his leg, gently pushing the bone back in and mending it, then closing the wound. Then it was easy to heal his wrist and the worst of the scratches. The rest would heal on their own with minimal scarring. Rin sat down when she was done, looking at the clock and noting that two hours had gone by. She would need to stay with him for at least another hour to make sure that she didn't miss anything and healed everything correctly.

Rin decided to use this time to study Kakashi. Sure she had healed him, and, consequently, knew every nook and cranny of his body, but she hadn't looked at him as a whole, as a person. She started with his face. The medics had taken his mask of, or maybe it was off in the first place, she didn't know. What she did know was that he was still as handsome as she remembered. He had a very masculine face, all strong lines and sharp edges. He was made unique by the scar over his eye, and another, smaller one right under his lips. He had a hint of stubble on his chin, probably because he couldn't shave on his mission.

He was taller than she remembered, and his muscles were more defined. He also had quite a few scars that she didn't remember. He looked so peaceful when he slept. His whole body was relaxed, unlike when he had slept on missions, always alert and ready in case of an attack. Rin sighed, Kakashi really hadn't changed much. She looked at the clock once again, deciding that she had stayed long enough and that there didn't appear to be anything else wrong. She got up to leave, but when she was halfway to the door, Kakashi's eye's opened.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, already back in medic mode.

"Fine," he answered, getting up to leave.

"Where do you think you're going? You've just had many life threatening injuries healed! You need to stay at least overnight for observation. We don't want any of your wounds reopening," she said.

"I don't really care," he said. "I hate hospitals, and there's no way I'm staying here another minute. Send a nurse down to check on me if you wish, but I'm not staying here." Rin was a little put out at his sudden outburst. She couldn't imagine why he hated hospitals so much that he wouldn't even stay for observation. She decided that reasoning with him probably wouldn't get her anywhere and just nodded, telling him that he should expect her later that night. He nodded in return. She left him alone to get dressed while she went to the front desk to alert them that he had been given permission to leave.

Kakashi waved goodbye over his shoulder as he left and Rin sighed. What was she going to do about him?

* * *

**Okay! There's chapter Five! This was one of the easiest chapters to write so far! For those of you who wanted longer chapters, we're getting to that in the next one! We are going to be on vacation from June 27 to July 6, so any writing will be done on paper and won't be uploaded until we get back! We're not sure how much time there will be for writing, so don't expect much more than a chapter. Once again, we would love it if you review and tell us how we're doing!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	7. Chapter Six

****

Disclaimer! We don't own Naruto. If we did Tobi would be Obito.

**Warning! We read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers**.

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Six

That night, when her hospital shift was over, Rin went to check on Kakashi. She got his address from the medical files and was surprised to find that he didn't live very far from her. She knocked and he answered a few seconds later. Upon recognizing her, he opened the door wider as an invitation for her to come in.

Rin wasn't surprised at how clean his house was. He had never been one for unnecessary mess. His furniture was dark, but his walls were white and impersonal. He didn't have any pictures that she could see, and didn't have much furniture.

"How are your injuries?" she asked.

"They haven't given me any trouble," he answered.

"That's good. I'm going to need to do an exam to make sure that everything is still healed correctly," she said, hoping that he wouldn't refuse her. He nodded his consent. She checked his injuries in the same order that she healed them, starting with his abdomen. Everything seemed to be in order. His stomach and intestines were functioning properly and his ribs, leg, and wrist showed no sign of fracture. She checked a few of his scratches to make sure they weren't infected and stepped back.

"Okay, that's it," she said. "It doesn't look like your wounds will reopen or become fractured again, but just to be safe I'm going to come back in two days. Don't overexert yourself, especially if you feel any pain from where your wounds were." At that she turned and headed toward the door.

"Aren't you going to ask me how it happened?" he asked.

"Why should I? Would it help me heal you? Or make you better? I'm here to make sure you stay alive, not to lecture you on being a ninja." Okay, she had to admit that she was a little cold, but being so close to him was making her nervous. She didn't even know if he had detected her genjutsu.

"No, it's just that most people are a little curious when Hatake Kakashi the Copy Nin comes back from a mission mortally wounded."

"Let's put it this way then: Would you tell me if I asked?"

He chuckled, "No."

"Then what's the point in asking?"

"I don't know, but most people do," he said.

"Then they're idiots," she said.

He laughed again. "You know, you remind me of someone I used to know," Rin's heart skipped a beat, thinking that he was on to her.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, she's one of the reason's I hate hospitals so much." Her heart skipped a beat again, but this time for an entirely different reason. She nodded and turned, walking out the door.

* * *

Yuuto came home feeling proud of himself. He had mastered two jutsu, one from Naruto and one from Sakura. He felt confident that he could do well during the Chuunin Exams. Misaki was also doing well, becoming faster and mastering her weapons to a point that they were an extension of herself.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were warming up to the twins. During their month of training they had proven to be very good students who were always willing to learn and mastered new techniques in record time.

Sakura found that Yuuto's calm and reasonable personality kept her from losing her temper numerous times. Sasuke found that Misaki's loud and exited personality made him more outwardly responsive. As in _showing emotion_. Sakura and Naruto were mystified.

Even though the Chuunin exams were less than a month away, Sasuke, Misaki, and Yuuto had yet to fight as a team. They were going to fix that, but the match had to be three against three or wouldn't be fair. Naruto and Sakura decided that asking Kakashi to be on their team would even things out. Sakura asked, and after a bit of reasoning he agreed. They set up a meeting time and Sakura relayed the information to Naruto, Sasuke, Misaki, and Yuuto.

When they were all there Sakura explained what they were going to do. Team Kakashi consisted of Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi. Team Sasuke consisted of Misaki, Yuuto, and Sasuke. The test was going to be something like the bell test, only instead of two bells there was only one. One member of Team Kakashi has the bell, but the members of Team Sasuke don't know which one. They will have to work together to figure it out.

They got into position. "Begin," Sakura said.

Yuuto and Misaki immediately leaped into the trees while Sasuke stayed on the ground and performed a fire jutsu. Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi jumped out of the way. Kakashi stayed to fight Sasuke while Naruto and Sakura went to find Yuuto and Misaki.

Naruto found Yuuto quickly and immediately engaged him in combat, avoiding his hands. When Sakura found Misaki she threw shuriken at her. Misaki jumped out of the way and threw her own shuriken, which Sakura deflected with a kunai. They continued like that while Sasuke and Kakashi were locked in a sharingan battle of genjutsu.

Yuuto soon realized that something was off about the way Naruto was fighting him. It was like he knew his fighting pattern, but Naruto hadn't been around Yuuto enough to study him that well. The only one who had was-

"Sakura…"

Naruto smirked and poofed revealing that it was really Sakura. They continued fighting.

Misaki was having the same trail of thought as Yuuto, thinking that Sakura really wasn't fighting like herself. She hadn't used any genjutsu, medical jutsu, or super strength. Misaki deduced that it couldn't really be Sakura, but she wasn't sure if it was Kakashi or Naruto.

"Hey Sakura…I was thinking, maybe we can go out for some ramen after this. It would be the perfect way to celebrate," she said casually. The effect was instantaneous. At the word "ramen" Sakura's eyes became hearts and she started salivating.

"I know it's you, Naruto. You can drop the act," Sakura poofed, becoming Naruto, who grinned sheepishly. "I told Sakura you guys were too smart for that, but she said we should do it anyway," he said. Misaki just grinned and continued fighting him.

Sakura was being tougher on Yuuto than she had ever been before. She was supposed to be getting him ready for the chuunin exams, and she was sure that the other ninja wouldn't go easy on him. There was a good chance that there would be other medical ninja there, so she had to get him ready for anything. She gave it her all and was pleasantly surprised when Yuuto kept up easily.

Yuuto knew that Sakura had been holding back on him before, so he trained harder and studied more. Sakura didn't know that he had read every book and scroll he could find on medical justsu and he planned to use this as an advantage.

He had learned a particularly useful technique from a book about unusual ways that medical chakra could be used that he found in Tsunade's office. He had asked permission to use her library a few days before and was now happy that he had. The justu was a way to search a person for any hidden objects without actually touching them. Medical chakra was formed into the shape of a hand and guided around any place that a weapon might be hidden. The hand is invisible and in most cases the person that's being searched can't feel it. Yuuto decided to use this so he could see if Sakura had the bell.

After a thorough searching of Sakura, who didn't show it if she felt anything, Yuuto found that Sakura did not have the bell. He relayed the information via headset to Misaki and Sasuke. When Sakura heard what he had found, she ran off to help Kakashi. Yuuto followed, assuming that Kakashi had the bell.

They found Kakashi and Sasuke completely still and staring each other in the eyes. Yuuto ran to Sasuke, but Sakura stopped him, shaking her head. This was something that was between them. Kakashi and Sasuke suddenly sprang apart, then attacked each other. Their limbs were a blur that Yuuto could just barely make out. All he could tell was that neither of them were getting many hits in because they both shared the Sharingan. They continued like that while Misaki and Naruto were still fighting.

Naruto had used the shadow clone jutsu many times, but Misaki was dispelling them with kunai and shuriken. Naruto realized that Misaki wasn't going to be an easy opponent and decided to bring the fight up a few notches. He went all out with his taijutsu, noting how easily Misaki countered and answered his attacks. He mixed some ninjutsu in also, and was impressed when Misaki used her own jutsu to counter his. He almost didn't realize that she was pushing him back towards where Kakashi and Sasuke were.

Kakashi and Sasuke were still fighting when Naruto and Misaki entered the clearing. Sakura and Yuuto were watching with interest as they used many complicated jutsu. Misaki was slowly pushing Naruto toward Yuuto and Sakura. Once she got close enough she told Yuuto with a look to search him while she continued fighting him.

Naruto didn't show any sign that he felt that he was being searched. Yuuto found nothing on his upper body, but when he searched his weapons pouch he found the bell. Yuuto looked at his sister and nodded his head yes while pointing at the weapon pouch. Misaki continued fighting Naruto, not letting on that she knew he had the bell. Sakura was distracted by Sasuke and Kakashi's fight, so she didn't see the exchange.

When Sasuke used a particularly distracting jutsu Misaki flipped over Naruto, retrieving the bell. She held it out in front of her, sticking her tongue out at Naruto.

"Wha-? How? When? WHAT?" Naruto sputtered.

"Looks like we won!" Misaki said gleefully. Sakura nodded, "Yes, you have. Good job!" Yuuto smiled and Sasuke just stood there impassive. Naruto still looked a little confused, and Kakashi smiled-er crinkled his eye.

"How'd you know I had the bell? I thought that Sakura's running toward Kakashi would have thrown you off," Naruto said. Misaki grinned, "You didn't think that I would just assume that Kakashi had the bell without making sure you didn't did you?" The look on Naruto's face said that he did, in fact, think that.

"Let's go for ramen! Naruto's treat!" Sakura said. They all laughed and left for dinner.

* * *

**There's chapter six! Sorry it took so long to get out! It's a lot longer than our normal chapters though, so I hope it was worth it! Lucky for you, we have most of the next chapter already written, so that should be out pretty soon! We're sorry if this wasn't a very good fighting scene, but we're still pretty inexperienced in that area. Please review!**

**Thebookwormandtheskater **


	8. Chapter Seven

**

* * *

**

Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Kakashi wouldn't have had such a tortured past.

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers!**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Seven

Rin sighed as she knocked on Kakashi's door for the third time. She told him that she'd be back that day, and now he wasn't home! That was just like him, avoiding something he didn't want- The door was opening. Rin sat there speechless. It seems that he had been in the shower, as now he was standing there in a towel, dripping wet.

"I, uh…" she stuttered, then collected herself, ignoring the fact that his chest was completely bare. "I'm here to check your injuries again."

"Oh, right. Come on in," he said, leaving the door open behind him as he went farther into his house. "I'll be out in a second," he called from a room to her left. She went to his living room and sat on his couch. When he entered the room, he was, sadly, completely dressed. She went up to him and checked his injuries again, noting that everything was fine. She lingered a bit on his abdomen, remembering how he looked without a shirt, then cleared her throat and straitened up.

"Everything's fine. I won't need to come back for another check up unless you experience any pain," she said, trying to maintain her composure as a medic, even while certain images were running through her mind.

"Okay," he said while stepping a bit closer to her. She looked up at him, a bit breathless while he stepped closer.

"You're blocking the kitchen," he said. She sweat dropped and moved out of the way. "I'll see myself out," she said. "Okay," he called. She left completely flustered and slightly dazed.

* * *

It was about two weeks before the Chuunin Exams and Misaki needed more weapons. She was getting low on shuriken and kunai. She figured that it would be best if she missed out on the morning practice that day, since Sasuke wouldn't be there until that afternoon. She told Yuuto to let Sakura know why she was missing the morning and headed out.

She knew of a place on the outskirts of Konoha where the only merchandise were weapons. Weapons of every kind, from senbon to katana. They didn't sell the commercial stuff that was sold in the main shopping district of Konoha, everything sold was unique.

She started out at a simple store, where she got some scrolls with a cool pattern of cherry blossoms bordering it. She also got some black senbon. She browsed some other stores, but didn't find anything. She went into a shop that specialized in shuriken and kunai, what she had gone for, and was amazed at the selection. They had every color and pattern you could want.

After quite a bit of deliberation she finally decided on shuriken that had a purple tint in the sunlight and kunai that had an intricate pattern of leaves on the handle. They were definitely more expensive than the plain ones, but they were worth it. She was just browsing the other stores, not really planning on buying anything else, when she saw it.

It was the most perfect Katana that she had ever seen. The blade was a sleek sliver and the hilt was white, but was covered almost completely by a patter of crimson flowers. It was obviously made for a woman, but there was nothing feminine about it. It was dangerous a sexy, and it had to be hers.

Sure, she didn't know how to fight with a sword, but Sasuke did. Maybe she could convince him to teach her. She looked at the price and almost passed out. It would clean her out completely. She looked at it again and decided that she didn't care, she had to have it. Two minutes and an empty wallet later, it was hers. Now all she had to do was convince Sasuke to teach her…

* * *

While Misaki was becoming broke, Yuuto was sparring with Sakura. This fight had been going on for a while, so they were both hot and sweaty. Yuuto couldn't help but notice how beautiful Sakura looked with her face flushed like that. He was brought out of his thoughts when Sakura aimed a punch at his head. He dodged punch after punch, finally getting a low kick in that landed her on her back. He straddled her to keep her down.

"I think that's enough for today," he said. With a grunt, Sakura flipped their positions, putting her on top.

"I don't," she said.

"I do," He said, flipping them over again.

"I don't,"

"I do,"

"I don't"

"I do,"

"I don't," by now they were both breathing hard. Yuuto flipped them over again so that he was on top. He leaned close, looking into her eyes. "I do," he said softly, right before he leaned down a kissed her. The kiss was sweet and slow, with more passion than lust. When it ended they were both struggling to catch their breath.

"Would you, maybe, like to go to dinner with me tonight?" Yuuto asked when they were breathing normally.

"I'd love to," Sakura said with a smile. He kissed her again and this time they didn't stop.

* * *

"Hey, Yuuto!" Misaki yelled as she headed to the training grounds. "You won't believe…" she trailed off when she saw Yuuto and Sakura kissing. Then she started sqeeling and jumping up and down.

"I knew it! IknewitIknewitIknewit!" she squeeled. She'd had a feeling that this would happen eventually. They looked up at her, Sakura embarrassed and Yuuto with murder in his eyes. She realized she was interrupting.

"Oops! Sorry, I'll just…" she trailed off as she started to back away, and ran straight into a hard chest. Sasuke's hard chest to be more specific. "Just kill me now," she muttered under her breath.

"Sorry Sasuke! You won't believe what I bought today!" She brought the sword out of her bag and showed it to Sasuke. "Isn't it just _amazing_?" She gushed. He, of course, didn't show any emotion, but in true Sasuke style, stated the obvious.

"It's a sword," he said.

"No Sasuke," she said a little annoyed. "It's the most perfect sword on the planet and you will address it as such."

"You don't know how to use a sword," he said, stating the obvious again.

"I know that Sasuke," she said, even more annoyed. "That's why you're going to teach me!"

"I can't teach you how to use a sword in two weeks,"

"You can at least teach me the basics! It could be really helpful during the Chuunin Exams! _Please_? I promise I'll be really good and focus and practice and-

"Okay," Sasuke was about as surprised by his answer as Misaki was. He chalked it up to how annoying she was being, but somewhere inside him he knew that that wasn't the case at all.

"Oh Sasuke! _Thank you_!" she squeeled as she threw herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck in a hug. "I promise you won't regret it!" Sasuke seriously doubted that…

* * *

**There's chapter seven! We told you that it would be out soon! There's been so much action going on lately that we thought it'd be fun to throw in a little romance! We hope you liked the chapter, even though it wasn't as long as the last one! Please review!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	9. Chapter Eight

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Asuma would still be alive.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Eight

The next day, Sasuke reluctantly brought his sword with him to training. Misaki was there already and he noticed with interest that she was dressed to match her sword. She was wearing essentially the same outfit that she always wore, with a skirt and a form fitting shirt, only now everything was either crimson or white.

Noticing Sasuke's curious gaze, Misaki shrugged, "What? The colors I was wearing before clashed horribly." Sasuke just raised an eyebrow and started with the training.

"The most important thing in sword fighting is having the correct stance." He demonstrated, spreading his legs to shoulder width apart and holding his sword out in front of him. Misaki mimicked him.

"Like this?" she asked. "Bring you legs a little closer together," he said, coming around behind her. "And bend your knees. Now," he said, putting his hands on her arms, "Move your arms up a bit and angle them to the right." Misaki did was she was told, all the while feeling like she could barely breath due to his close proximity.

"Okay, that's good," he said. To Misaki's disappointment he stepped away. "Now, stand up straight with your legs together and you arms by your sides," she was confused but she did what he said. "Get back into sword position," Even more confused she did what she was told. "I want you to repeat getting in and out of sword position until I tell you to stop. It has to become instinct."

Misaki groaned, " But, how can we waste time doing this when we only have two weeks?"

"Trust me," he replied. "This isn't wasting time. Continue with your exercise." Misaki did, mumbling the whole time under her breath about stupid jerks and wastes of time.

Sasuke had her continue like that the whole morning. By lunch Misaki's arms were aching from holding the sword up. She groaned as she sat down under the tree that she liked to eat under.

"You thought it was all going to be fun and games didn't you?" Sasuke asked. She mumbled no, but her expression said that she did. "Well, it's not. Mastering a sword takes a lot of hard work and patience, that's why I was reluctant to train you. You're not the most patient person. A lot like Naruto actually…" he mused aloud. Misaki scoffed, "Hah! I'm nothing like that blond idiot!" Sasuke didn't say anything, just smirked and continued eating his lunch.

When they were finished eating Sasuke stood. "I need to leave soon, but I'll give you something to practice this afternoon. He demonstrated a simple exercise and watched Misaki do it a couple times before he left. "Oh, and Misaki?" he said over his shoulder. "Yeah?" she answered. "I expect you to have mastered that move, as well as the sword position, by tomorrow morning."

* * *

"So? How was your _date_?" Misaki asked Yuuto that evening. "It went well. I asked her out again, so we're going to the festival on Saturday together." About a week before the chuunin exams there was a festival. It raised peoples spirits and helped them forget about the exam that could cost them their life. And it was just plain fun. Misaki had forgotten all about the festival. She still needed a date. She finished her meal, yawning and stretching her aching muscles.

"Night Mom, night Yuuto," she said sleepily, heading to her room. She didn't know why, but those exercises wore her out. She fell asleep quickly.

* * *

She was in the forest, running. She didn't know what she was running from, but she knew that she needed to get _away_. She stumbled into a small clearing and gasped in horror at what she saw. Yuuto was lying on the ground, bloody and still. Beside him was Sasuke, who was still alive, fighting, and losing to, a masked opponent. "Save me, Misaki," he said, spitting out blood. Her sword was suddenly in her hands, but she couldn't use it.

"I…I don't know how!" she cried.

"Save me…" Sasuke said, right before his opponent landed a killing blow. The man who killed Sasuke turned to her, smiling a cruel smile with hard eyes that twinkled in amusement. He turned and ran away while Misaki ran to Sasuke side. She sobbed over him, "I'm sorry I couldn't save you! I'm sorry I couldn't save you!"

* * *

Misaki woke up to daylight. "Aw crap, I overslept," she said. She got dressed, thinking of that horrible dream. "I will save you Sasuke," she said to herself.

* * *

Rin hummed to herself as she walked to the bookstore. Today was her day off and she was going to enjoy it. She really needed a new copy of _The Human Body_(1). Hers was worn and falling apart, and it couldn't hurt if she browsed the romance section while she was there…

The bell over the door chimed as she walked in, and the old woman behind the counter smiled. "Is there anything I can help you with, dear?" she asked kindly. "No thank you," she answered, with a smile of her own. The bookstore was older, with wooden shelves that reached to the ceiling. It was separated by genre, the books ordered alphabetically by the authors last name. Rin had been here many times and headed straight for the medical section. She quickly found the book she was looking for and walked over to the romance section.

Romance had the most books of any section by far. Rin quickly got lost in the many copies of clichéd love stories and provocative titles. She was so lost that she didn't even notice that she was steadily getting closer to Kakashi, who was at the end of the isle.

"Like to read romance, I see," he said when she was in hearing distance. She gave a start and stood up straight, as she was stooped over to look at the books on a lower shelf. "N-no, of course not," she stuttered. "I'm just looking for…a gift! I'm looking for a gift!"

"A gift," he said, and she nodded. "And who might be receiving this gift?" Rin thought quickly.

"My great aunt! She just loves these romance books. Her birthday's coming up," this was, of course, a complete lie. She didn't have a great aunt, one that was alive anyway. She thought it best to change the subject before she got herself into any more trouble. "What are _you_ doing here?" she asked.

"I'm looking for the latest edition of Icha Icha Paradise. It's supposed to come out today," he answered. She was appalled. "What _is _it with men and those books? I could swear that my so- student reads them, but I've never caught him at it. What I wouldn't give to destroy them all,"

"And romance is any better?" he asked.

"I _told _you, I'm looking for a gift for my great aunt," she said firmly, hoping that he hadn't realized that she was lying through her teeth. "Oh, yes, I forgot," he said with a smile that said that he didn't believe her. "I should probably get going. It was nice seeing you again. Oh," he said, grabbing a book off the shelf. "Try this one." he handed her the book and walked away, while she watched his retreating back. It wasn't until he left that she looked at the book. It was called _Her Lovers Mask_(2) and the cover had a picture of a scantily clad man with a mask much like Kakashi's holding an equally scantily clad woman in a passionate embrace. _What the hell does this mean?_ she asked herself. She figured that buying it might help her figure it out.

* * *

It was Friday, just a day away from the festival, and Misaki _still_ didn't have a date! She had spent so much time training with her sword, that she hadn't had any time to do anything else. She had to admit that the training was worth it. She had already mastered quite a few moves. The latest one was harder. It was afternoon, and Sasuke wasn't there, but Misaki was still practicing the move from that morning. She just couldn't get it right! She groaned as she got it wrong _again_.

"Try tilting the sword a little more," Misaki turned at the unfamiliar voice. Behind her was a boy about her age. He was plain, with short brown hair and basic training clothes, but he carried a spectacular sword. The blade was a darker silver than hers, and the hilt was black, with a pattern of green dragons curving around it. Curious, she did what he said, and was surprised to find that she got the move right! Acting on impulse she ran over and hugged him. "Thank you! I've been trying to get that move right for hours!" She realized that she had hugged a complete stranger and stepped away, embarrassed.

He laughed, "It was no problem. I just learned that move a week ago." She gasped, "You mean that you're just learning too? Wow, what a coincidence. I was just about to take a break, do you want to join me?" He nodded yes, and they sat down. They started talking about swords and how they got interested in learning. She learned that his name was Ichirou and that his father had wanted him to learn sword fighting, as he was the first born. They talked for a long time, and before they knew it, it was dinner time.

"I should be going," he said. "Yeah, me too," she sighed. "Listen, I have to repay you for your help somehow. What do you want?" He thought for a moment. "How about you go to the festival with me tomorrow," he suggested. Misaki grinned and nodded, "That'd be great!" she said. They went there separate ways after setting up a meeting time. Misaki smiled to herself. She had gained a new friend _and_ a date to the festival! The day couldn't have been any better!

* * *

(**1) As far as we know we completely made this book up.**

**(2) Ditto**

**There's chapter eight! We don't know anything about sword fighting other than what we've seen in movies, so we apologize if we got anything horrible wrong. What do you think the mysterious dream means? And you're probably wondering why Misaki hasn't hooked up with Sasuke yet…well, that can't happen right now if we want to keep the characters as in character as possible. Speaking of in character, we're trying our best, but there may be times when they're ooc, so bear with us! Pleas review!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	10. Chapter Nine

**Diclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Shikamaru and Temari would be together.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Nine

Yuuto sighed as he looked over his clothes again. He simply didn't know what to _wear_. Normally, he didn't have this problem. _Normally _he wasn't on a _date_ with Sakura. It was a traditional festival, with kimono's required. He had many kimono's, as he, his mother, and Misaki had been to many festivals over the years. They were all in various colors and patterns. Too many for him to choose.

"Misaki!" he yelled. As much as he hated to admit it, he really needed her help.

"What?" she asked as she appeared in his doorway. He almost laughed at the sight of her. Her hair and makeup was done, but she was still in her pajamas.

"What should I wear?" he groaned.

Misaki sighed. "Boys! They're hopeless," she said to herself. She looked over his selection of kimono's, placing them one by one into a discard pile. She grimaced at a few, like his old pale blue one with the bright red stars, and his bright orange one. _Ugh, when could these have been in style?_ She asked herself. She was down to the last two. A plain dark blue one and a forest green one with tree branches creating a design around it.

"Here," she said, holding out the forest green kimono. "Wear this one." Yuuto took it.

"You're sure that this is the one?" he asked. "Yes, I'm sure. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go change."

* * *

Misaki met Ichirou in front of Ichiraku Ramen. He was wearing a plane brown kimono. He stood up from his seat when he saw her. "Wow, you look great!" he said. She was wearing a black kimono with green swirls around it. The black made her hair look really white, and the green was the same color as her eyes. She had twisted her hair into a bun that was held with a pair of black chopsticks.

"Thanks! So do you," she replied with a smile. They started walking, taking in the smells of the food and the sight of everyone in their best clothes. They stopped at a dango stand and got a couple of the sweet treats to eat while they walked.

"Ooh! Will you win me a stuffed animal?" Misaki asked when they passed a game booth. Ichirou looked a little nervous, but nodded yes. It was one of the games where you threw a ball at a stack of cups and if you knocked them all down you got a prize.

"Three please," he said to the attendant. _Three?_ Misaki thought._ This should be easy enough to get with _one_._ She shrugged it off and started cheering for him.

* * *

Sasuke heard her before he saw her. She was cheering loudly for Yuu- Wait, that wasn't Yuuto's name she was saying. _Ichirou? Who's Ichirou?_ He thought as he turned around. He almost didn't recognize her when he saw her, as used to seeing her in training clothes as he was. She was normally dirty and sweaty, but now she was anything but. Then he noticed a boy beside her trying to win her a stuffed animal. His eyes narrowed. Why should he be trying to win her a stuffed animal? It wasn't as if he was her date or something. Or was he? He hadn't thought to ask her if she had a date…he had just assumed that she didn't. _Stupid_ he berated himself.

That _Ichirou_ person was doing horrible. He hadn't knocked the cups over yet and he was on his sixth try. Sasuke started walking over there, thinking that he could do better than that.

"Are you okay, Ichirou?" he heard Misaki ask. "You look a little…strange."

"Yeah, I'm okay," he heard him reply. "It's just…I'm not a ninja!"

"Really? Never would have guessed," Sasuke said dryly when he was beside them. Misaki didn't look surprised when he spoke, she was a kunoichi after all, but Ichirou looked taken aback. "One please," he said to the attendant. He threw the ball and knocked them all over on the first try. "That's how it should be done," he said. He watched as Ichirou made some excuse and walked away.

"Which one do you want?" he asked, gesturing at the stuffed animal's hanging over their heads.

"None, you jerk!" she yelled at him.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Why? I won you one, and he couldn't."

"That's not the point!" she said. "The point is that you humiliated my date! Now he probably thinks that I hate him because I didn't have a chance to tell him that I didn't care whether he was a ninja or not!"

"You don't care?" Sasuke asked. "You should! Do you think a _civilian_ would be able to protect you?"

"I can protect myself! In case you haven't noticed, I'm a ninja! A damn good one too! You can keep your stuffed animal," she said as she started running after Ichirou. Sasuke just stood there, not being able to fully process that he had been rejected.

* * *

"Ichirou!" Misaki called, chasing after him. "Ichirou stop! I don't care if you're a ninja or not! I just wish that you would have told me sooner!" Ichirou slowed, and she caught up with him as he stopped.

"You really don't care?" he asked.

"Of course not!" she replied. "A friend is a friend, whether they're a ninja or not. Besides, I don't have any ninja friends besides Sasuke that I can talk to about sword fighting."

"Is Sasuke the guy who won you the stuffed animal?" he asked.

She scowled. "Yes, and I'm really mad at him for that. I wish I didn't have to see him at training."

Ichirou smiled. "It's okay, I just ran because I thought you hated me. Do you want to go back to the festival?" Misaki nodded.

* * *

Yuuto was having a great time. It was close to sunset and he and Sakura were just walking, holding hands. Yuuto thought that she looked beautiful in her kimono. It was white with cherry blossoms. They passed Naruto and Hinata at Ichiraku Ramen and they stopped. Naruto was wearing a (what else?) orange kimono, and Hinata was wearing a purple kimono with lily flowers on it.

"Hey guys," Yuuto said. "Do you want to watch the sunset with us?" Naruto and Hinata looked at each other, then shrugged. "Sure! Where are you going to watch it?"

"We were heading to the hill by the training grounds. I always thought that the sunset would be pretty from there," Sakura said. They started walking again. When they got to the training grounds they saw that Misaki was there.

"Hey everyone," she said. "This is Ichirou. He's training with a katana too." Everyone greeted him. "So, where are you guys going?"

"We're walking to the hill over there so we can watch the sunset," Yuuto said, pointing.

"Cool, can we come?" Misaki asked. He nodded yes.

"So," Sakura began after they started walking again. "Does anyone know where Sasuke is?" At the mention of Sasuke's name Misaki scowled, which didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the group.

"Misaki? Do you know something?" Yuuto asked.

"Earlier today he humiliated Ichirou when he was trying to win me a stuffed animal…and I kinda went off on him," Misaki said guiltily.

"What did he do?" Sakura asked.

"Just made it seem like Ichirou isn't good enough because he's not a ninja. Then he said that I needed to be _protected_, like I'm not a ninja or something." Sakura and Naruto frowned. They couldn't remember Sasuke ever doing something like that, in public no less. It showed too much emotion. The only reason he would was probably because he was-

"You don't think that he was jealous, do you?" Sakura mumbled to Naruto so that Misaki couldn't hear.

"I really don't know what to think anymore," Naruto mumbled back. "This is all so unlike Sasuke…he must really like Misaki."

They climbed to the top of the hill and sat, waiting for the sun to set. The sky was a light pink, red, orange, and gold, and it just got more colorful as the sun set lower.

"It's beautiful," Misaki said, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"You picked a good spot Sakura!" Naruto said. Soon the sun was down, which meant that it was time for the fireworks.

"I always love this part," Hinata said in her soft voice as they started. She lost the stutter when she started dating Naruto. Achieving her goal had made her more confident. Naruto scooted closer to her and put his arm around her.

"Yeah, me too," he said. Yuuto likewise moved closer to Sakura. Misaki and Ichirou, being just friends, stayed where they were. The fireworks continued, bathing them in blue, red, green, and gold light. As time went on they dwindled out, less and less being sent up at a time. Finally, they stopped.

"That was…anticlimactic," Yuuto said. Before he finished speaking dozens of fireworks were sent up at a time, coloring the sky. They looked on in awe of the colors, not being able to process them all at one time.

"Climactic enough for you, Yuuto?" Misaki asked.

"Definitely," Yuuto answered, still a little awestruck.

Miskai giggled. "Come on, Yuuto! They're just fireworks! We've seen them before!"

"Yeah," Yuuto said. "You're right. I don't know what came over me."

Everyone got up, stretching, and started walking back down the hill to their homes. Naruto and Hinata, and Yuuto and Sakura, ended the night with a goodbye kiss, while Misaki hugged Ichirou and told him how much fun she had had. They said their goodbye's with promises to see each other again.

* * *

Rin sighed as she closed _Her Lover's Mask_. Kakashi really did know what he was talking about when it came to romance books. That was the best one that she had read in a long time. She had elected to stay home while her kids were at the festival. She really didn't have anything to do there, as all of the people that she knew from the hospital were going with their spouses. The book was definitely time well spent.

She had to admit that the story was eerily familiar. In it a young woman falls in love with a masked hero. They are swept up in a whirlwind of romance, but then she disappears, pronounced dead. Years later she returns, with a child. The hero welcomes her home.

Rin tried to push it out of her mind, but she couldn't help but wonder if he knew who she really was. She hoped not. She definitely wasn't ready to face Kakashi.

* * *

**There's chapter nine! Sorry it was a little late. We're not sure if guys really wear kimono's, but for the sake of the chapter they do! We hope that Sasuke was in character. What do you think of Ichirou? Should we keep him as part of the story or put him in the sidelines? Tell us what you think! Please Review!**

**theboowormandtheskater**


	11. Chapter Ten

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Deidara would still be alive.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers!**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Ten

Sasuke had had enough. It had been a week, _a week_, since the festival and Misaki _still_ wasn't talking too him. Well, technically she was _talking_ to him, but she only said something if it was related to training. The chuunin exams started in two days and something had to give.

"Misaki, you have to talk to me sometime. If you don't we'll never make it through the chuunin exams," Sasuke said. Misaki just turned her back on him and continued eating her lunch. So if reasoning wouldn't work… then he needed to figure something else out, and fast. Let's see…what did Misaki enjoy? Sword fighting, gossip, weapons, arguing….Arguing! So, what to argue about?

"You know, Misaki, I think my sword is much better than yours," Sasuke said. Misaki only narrowed her eyes, not commenting. Time to step it up a notch. "Mine is much nicer. I mean, who likes a girly sword like yours?" That did it.

"My sword is _not_ girly! It's feminine, there's a difference! Besides, yours is clunky and too long," Misaki ranted.

Sasuke smirked. "Is it now?"

Misaki quieted, realizing her mistake. _No going back now_, she thought. "Yes, it is."

"I suppose you're right. Maybe I should invest in a new one," Sasuke said. Misaki was a little taken aback, recognizing this as something as close to an apology that she was going to get.

"Yes, you should," she said. Sasuke smiled. He was forgiven.

* * *

"Come _on_, Yuuto! We have to get some training in!" Sakura said that afternoon.

"Can't we just keep making out?" Yuuto asked.

"As tempting as that sounds…no, we can't. You have two days until the chuunin exams and I want to teach you another genjutsu," Sakura said. Yuuto perked up a bit at that, he was always open to new genjutsu.

"Okay," he said, getting up. They walked to the training grounds in comfortable silence. They warmed up a little bit, then Sakura had them sit down to discuss genjutsu. She demonstrated and he learned it quickly.

"Only use this jutsu as a last resort. I don't want anyone to be hurt badly if they don't need to be," Sakura said. Yuuto nodded, committing this to memory. "Now, lets get going with your taijutsu." Yuuto groaned.

"Quit it, you know you need to work on it!" Sakura said.

"That doesn't meant that I have to like it," Yuuto grumbled.

"It will go a lot easier if you do," Sakura said with a creepy smile.

* * *

It stormed later that night. The sky darkened to black, the thunder boomed, and the lightning lit up the village to the brightness of daylight for a split second. As beautiful as Rin thought the storm was, it put a damper on her plans. She had wanted to buy some fresh fruit from an outside vendor after work, but instead she was forced to go to the local grocery store, which never had the freshest fruit.

She sighed as she searched for the freshest bunch of strawberries, but almost all of them had some that were gray or mushy in places.

"Try these," said a voice beside her. She jumped.

"Don't scare me like that Kakashi!" she said.

"Sorry, I thought you heard me," he said. He handed her the strawberries. "The trick is to look at the very bottom. They always put the worst on the top so that they sell faster."

"Thanks, I'll remember that."

"No problem. How are your students doing with their training?"

"They're doing good. I don't think that Sasuke is too bothered by them. He's even teaching Misaki sword play." Kakashi raised his eyebrows at that, thinking that it was very unlike Sasuke. "Anyway, they tell me that they're fine, but I think that they're more nervous then they let on," Rin said.

"Rightly so," Kakashi said. "There are going to be some pretty talented ninja in the competition, including Sasuke's old team." This was news to Rin. She had known that Sasuke had gained…companions on his quest for revenge, but she hadn't known what had become of them. Seeing her curious gaze, Kakashi continued. "As they didn't seem to be a threat to the village, nor did they have anywhere else to go, the counsel decided that they could become citizens of Konoha."

Rin didn't think that it was like the counsel to be so forgiving, but she supposed that she had Naruto to thank for that. She processed the new information and decided that she should probably tell Yuuto and Misaki.

"Mist, Suna, and Sound are going to participate," Kakashi said. "I would expect that Sound will have quite a few ninja wanting to take the exams. Their new leader will want them to ranked high so the village can catch up." Rin had heard that Sound had gained a new leader after Orochimaru was killed. There's no better way to become friendly with a village than to participate in the chuunin exams.

"Thanks for everything, Kakashi! I'll be sure to tell Yuuto and Misaki what you told me. I don't want them getting hurt," Rin said as she walked away. When she got outside the sun was shining. _Of course._ She said to herself.

* * *

Misaki woke up the day of the Chuunin exams feeling nervous. Very nervous. When her mom had told her that Sasuke's old team was also competing she had realized that this wasn't going to be the cakewalk that everyone had told her it would be. From what she had heard, they were _strong_. Karin had been an assistant to Orochimaru and could track chakra signatures. Suigetsu aspired to be one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist and to obtain the sword of Kisame Hoshigaki. Jugo was said to be unstable, becoming bloodthirsty and killing anyone around him with little or no warning. He was the basis for the curse mark.

She mulled over this as she got dressed, and as she and Yuuto walked to the bridge where they were to meet Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto. She knew that Sasuke wouldn't treat them any differently than the other competitors, but that didn't really make much of a difference. When they got to the bridge she asked Sakura about Jugo, the one who worried her the most.

"Jugo is no longer mentally unstable," Sakura said in answer to her question. "I have been working with him extensively to determine and heal the cause of his rages. He may not be dangerous because of that, but he is still strong and an exceptionally skilled ninja."

Sakura's answer did little to soothe Misaki's fears. The only thing that she could hope for now is to be able to avoid them altogether. They said there goodbye's to Sakura and Naruto soon after arriving at the bridge, not wanting to be late.

When they arrived at the building where the first test was to be held, the first thing Misaki heard was a loud voice screaming "Sasuke-kuuuuuunnnnnn!" The voice belonged to a redhead with glasses wearing very short shorts, thigh high boots, and a lab coat type thing who was running towards them. Following behind her was a white haired guy with shark teeth and an very large guy with spiky hair.

"Eh, Karin, why'd you have to scream like that?" the white haired guy said. _Wait_. Misaki thought. _Karin? As in Orochimaru's assistant Karin? _That means that the white haired guy must be Suigetsu. And the big guy must be Jugo.

"Shut up Suigetsu," Karin said, her eyes still on Sasuke. This confirmed Misaki's suspicions. She suddenly didn't feel as nervous. Karin finally noticed that Sasuke wasn't alone. Her eyes narrowed as she saw Misaki.

"Who are you? And why do you have Suigetsu's hair?" she said.

"Eh? What do you mean?" Misaki replied. Yuuto looked between Misaki and Suigetsu several times before busting out laughing.

"She's right," he said between gasps of breath. "You're hair is exactly the same!" He started laughing all over again at the sight of her and Suigetsu's faces.

"But I'm nothing like her/him!" they both said at the same time, which just made Yuuto laugh even harder.

"Yeah, sure," he said sarcastically. Misaki and Suigetsu scowled at each other, both of them silently vowing to avoid each other.

"You never answered my question," Karin said.

"Oh, yeah," Misaki said. "I'm Misaki. I'm on Sasuke's team for the exams." She extended her hand, but Karin ignored it, her eyes narrowing further. _She's on Sasuke-kun's team, he must like her. I'm going to have to work extra hard to make Sasuke mine!_ Karin thought.

"Come on, Sasuke-kun. We don't want to be late for the exams," Karin said, taking a reluctant Sasuke's hand.

"Hn," he grumbled. Misaki watched this display through narrowed eyes. What with the "kun", the open hostility towards Misaki, and the hand taking, Misaki was beginning to think that Karin felt more for Sasuke than the affection of an old team mate.

**Yay! Chapter Ten is done! Now we can start on the really fun stuff! Just so you know, the next chapter won't be out for a while. We have band camp this week, so I doubt that we'll be getting any writing in. We'll try to get it in asap. Thanks everyone for over 2000 hits! Now if only we had more reviews...**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Haku would have never died.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Eleven

Sasuke, Yuuto, and Misaki walked into the room where the first exam was to be held. Sasuke wasn't surprised when he saw the long tables and the ninja lining the walls. He watched Ibiki, who had volunteered to be proctor again, explain the written test and the points system without interest. He didn't bother answering the questions, as he knew that they didn't matter. Instead, he swept his gaze over the room, examining his opponents.

There were masses of twelve and thirteen year olds, but he skipped over them and looked for the more experienced ninja. There were many teams from sound. Few of them looked to be below the age of fifteen. Sasuke wasn't surprised. After Sound attacked Konoha during the last chuunin exams he participated in, Orochimaru hadn't allowed any Sound ninja to take the exams. Sasuke analyzed the demeanor of the ninja and realized that most of them were nervous. He didn't think of these ninja as threats. Then he noticed the young man sitting in the back right corner.

The teenager was completely and totally calm. He was leaning back in his chair with his feet up and his arms behind his head, suggesting that he felt completely comfortable in this environment. His eyes were closed, but Sasuke knew that he wasn't asleep. He was wearing purple pants and a short sleeved cream shirt. He had bindings in seemingly random places on his body: his right ankle, his left shoulder, his left elbow, his right wrist, around his forehead. His headband was tied around his left thigh. His hair was a shocking color of pure red and was braided to his ankles.

He stood out because of his appearance, but what really made him different was the obvious killing intent that he radiated. Sasuke hadn't felt anything this strong since Gaara took the chuunin exams. As if he knew he was being watched the young man opened his eyes. He immediately looked at Sasuke and grinned a slow, malicious smile.

* * *

Misaki was freaking out. She had studied and studied with he mom over the years and yet she couldn't answer these questions! They were just too freaking hard! And what was with that weird points system anyway? Most places just kick kids out if they cheat…Wait, maybe they _want_ us to cheat! But they don't want us to get caught because…because ninja are supposed to be able to gather information without anyone noticing! That made much more sense! Now, how should she cheat?

She had her weapons with her, a few scrolls, a pair of chopsticks for her hair, a compact, some lip gloss…That was it! She decided to play the part of the self absorbed girl who didn't care about anything other than her appearance. She dug through her pouch and came up with the compact, lip gloss, and chopsticks. First she opened the compact and positioned it so that it looked like she was looking at herself while she was really looking at the person behind her, memorizing the movement of his pencil. She used her free hand to apply the powder from the compact expertly, then moved on to the lip gloss. She finished by putting her hair up in a bun, holding it with the chopsticks.

She smiled triumphantly at herself in the mirror and started copying everything she had learned onto the paper in front of her. It wasn't until after she was done that she thought to look at the guy she had copied from. She opened her compact again, pretending to reapply her lip gloss, and stared. The guy behind her was absolutely beautiful. His face was chiseled, his cheekbones were high, and his muscles were sculpted. He hair was a deep green and perfectly tousled. She quickly put her mirror down, not wanting attract any attention herself, as she'd been staring.

* * *

Yuuto was bored. He had known all of the answers to the questions and had finished them easily. He let his eyes wander the room, not really focusing on anything, until he saw a flash of pink out of the corner of his eye. The pink was the same color of Sakura's hair. When he looked over he saw that he did see pink hair, but it wasn't Sakura's.

The girl he saw had hair that was stick straight and reached to her lower back. She was wearing all white. A white top that went to just under her bust and zipped up, a white skirt that reached mid thigh, white wrappings on her lower arms and thighs, and white knee high ninja shoes. Her white sound headband was tied around her head in the traditional way.

He looked at her closer and listened, realizing that she was humming while she worked. _How interesting_, he thought. _I've never seen anyone with pink hair other than Sakura. _He saw her turn her head to the right, possibly to copy someone's answers, and gasped. Her eyes were the exact same color as her hair. A pretty light pink that made her seem like the most beautiful creature in the world when you saw them.

She turned back to the front and Yuuto snapped out of it. Sakura was the most beautiful person to him, not this girl that he didn't even know. He had no idea what had come over him.

* * *

Sasuke was brought back from his thoughts when Ibiki slammed his hand down on the front desk.

"Okay everyone," he said gruffly. "It's time for the tenth question."

Sasuke could see many of the first time takers fidgeting nervously, wondering what the tenth question was and why it was separated from the rest. He sat calmly in his seat, knowing that Ibiki was going to give them an ultimatum: answer the question correctly, or don't pass. He watched as half the contestants cleared out, by either their choice or their teammates. He had faith that Misaki and Yuuto were going to stay.

He was proven correct when, after most of the younger ninja were gone, Ibiki declared that everyone in the room passed. Everyone sighed in relief. There was a knock on the door and Yamato entered. Sasuke was surprised at his appearance, he had been expecting Anko. Sasuke berated himself, saying that he couldn't expect this to be like his first time.

"I'm here to take them to the second exam," Yamato said. Ibiki nodded, saying that he was done with them. "Okay everyone, follow me."

* * *

Misaki wondered where they were going. As she had only been in Konoha a few months, and had been training every waking moment, she hadn't had much time to explore. As it was, she had never gone this direction before. She saw Sasuke a little ways ahead of her and ran to catch up.

"Where are we going?" she asked when she was right beside him.

He smirked. "You'll see."

That did little to calm her nerves. "Is this any different than the first time you took the exams?" she asked. She was curious, he hadn't said much about the first time.

"Only that Yamato is the proctor for the second exam. Other than that everything is exactly the same," he said. She gasped.

"Why didn't you tell me about the tenth question? I almost peed my pants!" she said outraged.

"That's why," he said in an infuriatingly cocky voice.

"What would you have done if I had raised my hand to leave? I thought about it you know," she said.

"But you didn't," he said smugly.

"I almost did! I was this close," she held up her thumb and pointer finger so that there was about a centimeter between them, "from raising my hand. This close!"

"But you didn't," he said again, in the same voice he had used before.

"Of course not! Do you think that I would let Yuuto down like that?" _And you._ She added silently. Someone pushed past her, jostling her shoulder. She was about to demand an apology, but she saw the green hair of the guy who she copied off of. She gasped.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"Nothing, nothing," she said with a blush, her eyes not leaving the guy's back as he walked in front of her. She thought she heard Sasuke mumbling, but she was too caught up in her own fantasies to pay any attention.

* * *

Yuuto paid attention to Yamato as he talked about the second part of the exam. It was to be held in the Forest of Death. There were two types of scrolls: heaven and earth. Each team was to have one of the scrolls. The scrolls could not be opened. The goal was to get to the middle of the forest with both scrolls by the end of five days.

Yuuto didn't know much about the Forest of Death, but by its name he surmised that it was very dangerous. He supposed that Sasuke knew enough that he could help them through it. He wasn't worried about food as many seemed to be. He had once read a book on edible plants that he had memorized, guessing that it would come in handy. He had guessed right.

Yamato told them all to come collect a scroll and pick an entrance. Sasuke grabbed a random scroll and headed to the left. They ended up in front of entrance number thirty-seven. Yuuto looked at the kanji on the side of their scroll. It read 'heaven.' _I guess we're looking for an earth scroll then._

Yamato made sure that everyone had a scroll and was in front of a gate before telling them to begin. Yuuto, Sasuke, and Misaki stepped through their gate into the unknown danger of the forest.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven is complete! It was fun to write this chapter, switching between their points of view. Who are these mysterious ninja that caught the attention of Sasuke, Misaki, and Yuuto? What part will they play in the story? You're going to have to keep reading to find out! Please Review!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Karin wouldn't have gotten such a weird ability out of the blue. FYI: Naruto chapter 412.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Twelve

Misaki shifted nervously as she took in her surroundings. The forest was dark: the canopy of leaves didn't let any sunlight through. She could hear the rustling and crawling of the creatures around her. The sound of her footsteps seemed loud in the quiet.

"Sasuke?" she asked.

"Hn?" he answered.

"What do we do now?"

"Find a team that has an earth scroll. We can fight them for it," he said.

That didn't make her feel much better. "How do we know if a team has an earth scroll or not?"

"We don't."

That made her feel even worse. They continued walking forward. She supposed that they would run into a team sooner or later.

--

Karin was getting tired of waiting for something to happen. They had been walking for _hours_ and still had yet to find another team. The lack of action had sullied her mood to the point where she was constantly arguing with Suigetsu.

"Walk faster, Suigetsu!"

"Slow down, Suigetsu!"

"Shut up, Suigetsu!"

"Stop fidgeting, Suigetsu!"

This had, in turn, made Suigetsu just about as impatient as Karin. He rolled his eyes at everything that Karin said and gnashed his teeth whenever she did something annoying. He was on the verge of snapping.

It was just their luck, when, about three hours after the exam had started, they saw Sasuke and his team up ahead.

"Sasuke-mmmffff!"

"Shut up, Karin!" Suigetsu said with his hand over her mouth. "Do you want to tell every team in the area where we are?"

Karin glared at Suigetsu, biting his hand.

"Of course not," she huffed when he released her, refusing to admit that she had been wrong. "My voice wasn't _that_ loud."

Suigetsu glared as he shook out his hand, dispelling the pain that her bite had caused.

"Whatever," he said. He saw Karin get ready to snap and his eyes narrow threateningly. They suddenly started yelling, accusing each other of this and that.

Jugo had just sat back and watched his teammates as they became increasingly irritated. He found that it was a good source of entertainment. Now, however, he had to interfere.

"Guys," he began. When they did nothing but argue he tried again.

"Guys!" They once again ignored him.

"GUYS!" That got their attention. Jugo could be very threatening if he needed to be. "I think that it would be best if you calmed down. Sasuke and his team already know that we're here, and if you keep it up, it won't be very long until other teams are alerted of our presence," he said. Karin and Suigetsu had the grace to look sheepish as they walked forward, towards Sasuke.

"Hello again," Sasuke's female teammate (what was her name? Oh, right, Misaki) said to them with a smile.

"Hello," Jugo greeted.

"Hey," Suigetsu said.

"Hi Sasuke-kun!" Karin chirped, not once looking at Misaki or Yuuto. She walked over to Sasuke and grabbed his arm, smiling up at him adoringly. Sasuke glared at her, but she, oblivious, continued to hang off of him.

"So…" Misaki began, breaking the awkward silence. "What scroll do you guys have?" She figured that the question was enough to distract herself from the sickening sight of Karin practically molesting Sasuke.

"Heaven," Jugo answered.

"Us too. What a relief," Misaki said. She really was relieved. She didn't want to fight people that she knew.

"Have you guys crossed any other teams?" Yuuto asked Jugo.

"Yours is the first," Jugo answered. Yuuto nodded thoughtfully and the group was silent.

"So…what happens next?" Misaki asked. Everyone looked at each other blankly.

--

Karin was becoming more annoying by the second. Not only had she latched onto him the moment she saw him, she had stayed there the whole time they walked. And she was talking. He didn't know what she was talking about, as he had tuned her out, but he knew that it was something annoying and fangirly.

"Oi, Karin," Suigetsu said. Sasuke mentally thanked him for distracting Karin, who let go of his arm to face Suigetsu expectantly.

"Do you sense any chakra around the area up ahead? I thought that I heard something," Suigetsu asked.

"I'll look," she huffed. It annoyed her to no end when Suigetsu exploited her talent. Couldn't he just go up ahead and _see_? Anyway, there really was a team up ahead. A _strong_ one. All three members had massive chakra levels. She trembled just thinking about crossing paths, even with six of them.

She saw another, weaker, team to her right and yet another one to the left. She didn't want everyone to know that she was afraid of the first team that she saw, so she didn't say anything to the group about them. Instead she said, "I saw a team this way," she said pointing to the left. "And another one to the right. I think that it'd be best if we…split up here," she said with some hesitation.

Sasuke nodded. "We'll take the team to the right," he said.

"That gives us the left," Suigetsu said.

"Good luck!" Misaki yelled as they split apart.

"We wish the same to you," Jugo yelled back.

--

It didn't take long to reach the team that Karin saw. It was just a team of genin. Misaki sighed. She didn't like the idea of fighting people less experienced than herself without a reason. Yuuto's thoughts were along the same lines. He decided that if they did fight, then he would heal them when they were done.

As it turns out, they didn't have to fight at all. The moment that the genin team saw them they surrendered their scroll. It was an earth scroll.

"Wow…we got lucky," Misaki said.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted. He wasn't really pleased with the genin's performance, especially since they were from the leaf village. "They should have tried to fight us," he finally said.

"Why? They knew that they were going to lose," Yuuto answered.

"How did they know? I mean, we're only genin too. Yeah, we're older, but that doesn't always mean better. If they're going to become Konoha shinobi they need to be willing to fight ninja that are more experienced than them," Sasuke said. He was thinking about his genin days, when he, Sakura, and Naruto were constantly thrown into situations that seemed hopeless. Somehow they made it through them and he didn't doubt that other teams could too.

"Well," Misaki said gently. "They're not going to become chuunin, thanks to their actions. Maybe that will teach them something."

Misaki did have a point. Maybe they'll want to become stronger so they can take on the seemingly better team and win. This made Sasuke feel better.

--

Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo fared differently. They took on a group of fifteen year old Sound genin. They got a run for their money as the teens proved to be more experianced than they expected. They didn't go down easily, but they did go down eventually.

By the end of the fight, Karin was spitting up blood because she was bleeding internally and she had a concussion, Suigetsu was nursing a broken wrist and three broken fingers, and Jugo had a dislocated shoulder. All three of them sported bruises and scratches.

It was worth it. They had an earth scroll. Now all they had to do was get to the center of the forest alive. They made camp, placing exploding tags around the perimeter so that they would be alerted if someone tried to attack. As Karin had a concussion she volunteered to take first watch. She didn't want to risk going to sleep quite yet. She arranged for Suigetsu or Jugo to wake her up every hour when she did go to sleep, just to be sure.

--

Sasuke, Misaki, and Yuuto also made camp. Though they were much more comfortable without the injuries. They also placed exploding tags around the perimeter. Sasuke took first watch. About an hour into his watch, a tag went off. He, Misaki, and Yuuto immediately jumped to their feet, ready to fight.

"Way to go, Suigetsu," they heard Karin say.

"That wasn't my fault!" they heard Suigetsu say. Sasuke motioned for Misaki and Yuuto to follow him forward. They went quietly, masking their chakra. When they saw Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo they stopped. They watched for a moment, then, deciding that it was safe, showed themselves.

"Hello," Yuuto greeted.

"Hi!" Karin chirped. "How did it go with your team?" She asked Misaki, a smile on her face the whole time, not once looking at Sasuke.

"Good," Misaki said cautiously, noticing that their was something off about her. "They didn't even put up a fight."

"Ours too! We both got lucky!" Misaki was really thinking that something was wrong. She still hadn't looked at Sasuke. Not once.

"Sasuke?" Misaki said sweetly. "I think that I left our scrolls back at camp. Would you come with me to get them? I don't want to go alone." Her tone suggested that she didn't want him to come with her for the scrolls, but for something else entirely. Karin didn't bat an eyelash at the suggestion that Misaki was going to be alone with _her_ Sasuke-kun. Yuuto was behind her, so Misaki made a sign behind her back, telling him to make a shadow clone.

Sasuke looked at her funny, but agreed to go. As soon as they were out of sight Misaki started running. Yuuto's shadow clone, that he hid in the woods, started running with them.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked.

"That girl is not Karin," Misaki said.

"What? How do you know?" Sasuke asked. Misaki looked at him incredulously

"Have you even noticed that she hasn't looked at you once? Normally she would be all over you, not to mention she would have throttled me for suggesting that we go somewhere alone together." Shadow clone Yuuto agreed.

"What do you suggest we do about it?" Sasuke asked.

"Well," Misaki began. "Chances are that Suigetsu and Jugo are also not really Suitgetsu and Jugo. So, that eliminates just going for her…We're probably going to have to fight them. They probably watched us with them, but obviously didn't pay much attention to behavioral patterns. Most likely they are young, fifteen or below."

Sasuke nodded, agreeing with her analysis of the situation. They drew up a plan. When they were done, Shadow Clone Yuuto poofed, which transferred all of what it learned to real Yuuto. Sasuke and Misaki walked back, giving Yuuto time to process all of the new information. When they got back everyone was silent.

"Did you find the scrolls?" 'Karin' finally asked.

"Right where I left them," Misaki answered.

"That's good," 'Karin' said.

"Yes," Misaki said. "It _is_" And she attacked.

* * *

**Yay! That chapter is finally finished! We got a bit of writers block during this chapter, so it got a little hard to write, but it turned out well in the end! Who do you think are impersonating Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo? And what team did Karin see that made her so nervous? Please review!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**

**_Edit: We are sorry for any confusion that might have been caused by the mix up of the scrolls. We made a mistake about half way through the chapter, saying that Sasuke and his team had an earth scroll, but in the previous chapter they had a Heaven scroll. We have fixed it so that they have a Heaven scroll, not an earth scroll._**


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Sasuke wouldn't be the main focus of the manga at any time.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Thirteen

Misaki lunged at the fake Karin, her fist raised. When her fist hit 'Karin's' face, the illusion disappeared. Standing in front of her was a Sand ninja who looked to be about fifteen. She had green hair that was pulled into pigtails and reached to her waist and her eyes were blue. She had on a pink tank top and shorts with a purple skirt that had a slit in the front. Her headband was tied around her neck and she had calf length purple shoes on.

Misaki sweat dropped. _No wonder she disguised herself. Green, blue, pink, and purple do _not_ go together,_ Misaki thought. _That girl has no sense of fashion. _She was distracted when the two other shinobi lost their disguises. One had darker skin and a buzz cut. He wore a red shirt and black ninja pants with red shoes and a red headband around his thigh. The other one had his blonde hair pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He wore a white tank top and navy pants. His shoes were black and his headband was tied around his arm.

The darker skinned guy sighed. "I told you it wouldn't work,"

"Shut up, Nobu," the girl snapped at him.

"Oh, come on Ayaka. He has a point," the blond guy said.

"I said be quiet! I'm trying to think here! That goes for you too Shiro,"

Shiro made a face behind her back. Misaki saw that this wasn't a very good team. The girl was bossy and obviously didn't listen to what anyone said. Nobu obviously knew what he was talking about when he had said that it wouldn't work, but he hadn't made Ayaka listen. And Shiro didn't have any respect for authority. She had come up with a plan to take them one on one, but now she thought that it might be best to make them try to work as a team.

"Guys," she called. "Go for plan B."

It was Yuuto who had thought to come up with a plan B. He thought that they didn't have enough of an idea of their character to decide the best way to defeat them. He had come up with a plan that would force them to work as a team in case they seemed like they would be the strongest divided. She mentally thanked him as they got into their positions.

--

The fight was over quickly. When forced to fight together the sand team fell apart. Ayaka had tried to boss her two teammates around, but when they didn't listen to her she ran away. Shiro just tried to protect himself, not even trying to help Nobu. Sasuke still remembered what Kakashi had told them about those who abandoned their teammates. They were worse than trash. The fact that Ayaka had run away, leaving her team behind, disgusted him.

They left the team alive, but took their one earth scroll, hoping to prevent them from going on to the next round. They went back to their camp, replacing the exploding tags. Yuuto took first watch, letting Sasuke and Misaki sleep. Both his watch and Misaki's were uneventful.

Sasuke woke up at dawn, his usual time, and relieved Misaki of her post, telling her to get another hour of sleep. She protested, saying that she was fine, but Sasuke insisted and she finally relented.

Sasuke sat up in a tree, towards the top, looking for anything suspicious. After a few minutes of seeing nothing but small animals and birds in the forest, his mind started to wander. He thought of the guy that he had seen while taking the first exam. The killing intent that he radiated made him…apprehensive. He knew that the ninja wouldn't hesitate before killing anyone.

Sasuke was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of a bird flying out of the tree he was sitting in. He realized with a start that at least an hour had gone by while he'd been thinking. He jumped from the tree, his muscles stiff from sitting still so long, and went to wake the others.

--

Somewhere near where Sasuke, Misaki, and Yuuto were, and team of young mist genin were getting desperate.

"We'll never get the other scroll at this rate!" a boy with blue hair said. "Can't we go any faster?"

"Unlike you," said a blonde girl. "We don't have enough stamina to go fast for long." The brunette boy beside her nodded silently.

"Oh yeah," the blue haired boy mused. "I always forget about that." The blonde girl and the brunette boy both sweatdropped at his declaration. Suddenly the blonde girl held out her arm, stopping them from going any further.

"What is it, Kotone?" the brunette boy said, speaking for the first time.

"I sensed something up ahead," she said. "Something…powerful."

The blue haired boy scoffed. "Psh, I bet I could take it."

"No," Akane said. "It's more powerful than anything I've ever sensed. Let's go this-" Before she could continue a team entered the clearing. It consisted of a young man with red hair braided to his ankles, and girl with pink hair and eyes, and an inhumanly beautiful guy with green hair. They all had sound headbands on. The younger team took a step back, away from the group.

"Well, well, well," the red haired ninja said. "What do we have here? It looks like a team of frightened twelve year olds,"

"I think you're right, Katsuro," the green haired man said. "What do you think we should do to them?"

"What scroll do you have?" the red haired man, Katsuro, asked suddenly.

Kotone stuttered out a reply, "H-h-heaven,"

"That's just perfect, isn't it, Tadao?" Katsuro said to the green haired man.

"Yes, just perfect," he replied. "See, we've been looking for a heaven scroll."

"H-h-here," Kotone said, holding out the scroll. "You can have it."

"That wouldn't be fair, now would it?" Tadao said. "We'd be taking your scroll without giving you a chance to fight. No, I think we're going to give you guys a chance to defend yourselves."

Kotone was scared speechless. She knew that they had no way of winning the fight. She just nodded, showing that she had heard what he had said.

"Hitomi," Katsuro said to the pink haired girl. "Do your thing."

The girl, Hitomi nodded. "Gladly, Katsuro-kun!" she said in a sweet, girly voice. She skipped to the front of the group, only a few feet in front of the younger team. She had kept her eyes down the whole time, but when she was standing directly in front of them her head snapped up, eyes staring straight at them. Kotone screamed.

--

Yuuto, Misaki, and Sasuke had been walking for about an hour when the heard the scream. It wasn't very far from them, maybe a minute if they ran full speed. They did just that, and arrived at the clearing in time to see a strange sight. In front of them were two teams, one only about twelve, the other their age. The pink haired girl that Yuuto had recognized was standing in front of her two teammates, her pink eyes locked on the other team. She was singing a simple lullaby.

The other team had vacant, haunted expressions on their faces, it was obvious that they were under a genjustu. What Yuuto couldn't tell was if it was because of her eyes or her song. A man with green hair stepped forward. He did a few hand sign then said, "Sound technique: Mystical Senses Block."

There was no outward indication as to what he had done, but the girl stopped singing and stepped back. The red haired man stepped forward.

"Now to finish this," he said. He did rapid hand signs, to fast and too numerous for Yuuto to keep up. When he finished he said, "Sound technique: Deadly Scream." He opened his mouth, letting out a scream too high for human ears. The younger team suddenly collapsed.

"No!" Misaki yelled, running into the clearing. Yuuto growled in annoyance. Didn't she realize that they could be killed just as easily as the other team? Sasuke followed her out, so Yuuto did the same.

Misaki was on the ground, checking the pulses of the kids who had collapsed.

"You killed them!" Misaki said, outraged.

Yuuto wasn't surprised. With a name like Deadly Scream it was kind of obvious as to what it would do.

"So?" the green haired guy said. "They were weak."

"Yeah, they were weak, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have become strong!" Yuuto said.

"I guess we'll never know," the green haired guy said.

Misaki made a move to lunge, but Sasuke was behind her in an instant, restraining her. She struggled in his grip.

"You don't want to fight them," he said quietly. "You saw what they did to those kids. Don't think that they wouldn't do it to you."

"I don't care!" she said.

"I do!" he said. Misaki stopped struggling at that.

"You do?" she asked, incredulous.

"Of course, you're my teammate," he answered. Misaki could have expected as much. Though caring for her like a team mate was better than him not caring at all.

"You're right," she said to Sasuke. She turned and faced the other team. "This isn't over. We will fight eventually."

"Looking forward to it," the green haired guy said with a smirk.

--

"Are we there yet?" Suigetsu asked, tired of all the walking.

"Almost," Jugo answered. Suigetsu perked up a little, happy that this crappy test would be over soon. They walked for a while longer, and then stopped when they reached a clearing.

Karin sat down. "Let's rest here. We have all day to reach the tower."

"Fine," Suigetsu grumbled, just wanting this whole thing to be over with. They sat and readjusted the bindings that helped their injuries.

"Where's a medic when you need one?" Suigetsu grumbled.

"Did I here someone say medic?" they heard from behind them. They turned and saw that Sasuke and his team were behind them. Yuuto was the person who had spoken. He whistled. "What happened to you guys?"

"The team that we got our second scroll from was a little…difficult." Jugo said.

"Looks like it. Come here and I'll heal you guys." Yuuto said. They did as they were told and soon they were as good as new.

"Thanks," Suigetsu said.

"Yes, thank you," Jugo answered, always polite.

"Don't I look so much better now Sasuke-kun?" Karin asked. Sasuke didn't say anything and Misaki rolled her eyes. It was easier to ignore Karin now that she knew that Sasuke cared about what happened to her, at least a little.

"So you guys have both scrolls then?" she asked Jugo.

He nodded the affirmative. "Yes. We are on our way to the tower."

She smiled. "So are we. I'm happy that we ran into you guys."

"We're happy you did too. If you hadn't we'd still be all beat up," Suigetsu said.

"I guess that we can go from here together then," Yuuto suggested.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Karin said, staring at Sasuke, like always.

"Let's get going," Misaki said.

* * *

**So what do you think of Hitomi, Katsuro, and Tadao? They have weird abilities don't they? And we hope that no one is too upset over the way that we skipped over the fight scene in the beginning. Fights are definitly not our specialty. Hate it? Love it? Either way we'd love for you to tell us! Please review!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**

**P.S We're trying to make the chapters longer, so if it takes more time to get out, that's why.**


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Sakura would have a more important part and would be able to kick anyone's ass. **

**Warning: We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Fourteen

"Finally," Suigetsu grumbled as they neared the tower.

"Who knew that it would be so hard to get to?" Misaki asked rhetorically.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted. Misaki looked at him. He had been acting strange ever since the episode with the sound ninja. Almost like he acted before Misaki got to know him.

"Well, since we're here we should probably go in," Yuuto suggested when no one moved.

"Yes, that would be wise," Jugo said. "As long as we're out here people can attack us."

Everyone finally snapped out of it and walked through the door. They were immediately assaulted by the glares of the other teams. They had never seen one of the teams, but the other one was the sound team that had given them so much trouble.

Misaki grinned. She had been itching for a reason to fight them. She looked at the clock above the wall. There was still two hours before the exam was over. She moved away from the door and sat down, trying to think of a way to cure boredom.

--

Karin sighed for the millionth time. She was just so _bored._ She'd been sitting there, doing _nothing _for…had it really only been an hour? It felt like more. She moved closer to Sasuke, not quite sitting on him, but almost.

"Hi Sasuke-kun," she said.

"Hn," he said, not really paying any attention to her.

"It's so boring. What are you thinking about to pass the time?" she asked.

Not wanting her to know that he'd been puzzling over how much Misaki confused him, he just grunted. She, of course, took this to mean that he had been thinking of her, and smiled wider.

"Oh, that's so sweet Sasuke-kun!" she said. Sasuke just continued to ignore her, not even looking at her when she moved even closer to him. "You know…" she began. "I could make any fantasies that you have come true," she said in a voice that she thought was sexy, but that really came out as more of a whine.

He didn't say anything so she took that as encouragement and scooted closer, sitting on him.

"Ahem," she heard. Misaki was standing in front of them, an annoyed look on her face. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked.

"Passing the time," Karin answered.

"By sexually assaulting Sasuke? I don't think so," Misaki said.

"I wasn't sexually assaulting him. He said I could," Karin answered, feeling pissed that Misaki was questioning her.

"Did he? What were his exact words?" Misaki asked, knowing that she had her. Karin floundered for a moment.

"It doesn't matter. I know Sasuke well enough to know what he means!" Karin said. "Tell her Sasuke."

Sasuke looked at Karin. "I don't believe that I told you to do anything," he said. Misaki smirked. Karin huffed in annoyance. "We both know what you really want Sasuke," she said as she walked back to her team. Misaki sat beside Sasuke in silence.

"What happens from here?" she finally asked.

"If these teams are the only ones that made it here we should have a month long break, then the third exam. If more teams show up then there will be preliminary matches to narrow down the competitors," he said. Misaki digested the information. The month long break will be a big help. It will give her enough time to hone her sword skills and learn some new jutsu.

"What is the third exam?" she asked, realizing that she didn't know.

"Contestants fight each other one on one. Whether you win or not doesn't matter. If the counsel thinks that you fought well you will be promoted to a chuunin. None or all of us could become chuunin," he said. That made Misaki feel better. "Unless you die," he said. Misaki sweat dropped, feeling worse.

They heard a door opening and saw Tsunade and their sensei's enter.

"Congratulations," Tsunade said to the four teams. "All of you pass the second exam." There was a collective sigh of relief. "The third part of the exam will commence in a months time," Tsunade continued. "This will give you time to learn new techniques that haven't been seen before and come up with strategies for when you fight. It will also give you time to recover from this exam.

"Only the Kages from Suna and Sound will be there, as no one from mist made it past the second exam. It is a shame. We had high hopes for them this year. Anyway, I will see you all again in a months time. Have a safe journey back to your countries."

--

Rin sighed as she looked out the window, lost in thought. She had been like this ever since the chuunin exams had started. She was so worried about her kids that it took effort to keep her head on her work.

"Excuse me, miss?" she heard from behind her. She turned around, startled.

"Yes?" she asked. The man who had spoken was elderly and had a kind face.

"We were told to come to this room for the exam," he said. He had a little girl, about four or five with him. Rin smiled at her invitingly.

"Of course. Why don't you come and sit here so that I can examine you?" she said in kind tones to the little girl. She did as she was told and the routine check up took no time at all.

"She's perfectly healthy! Make sure to bring her back if you think that she's sick," Rin told the old man. The man nodded and smiled as he left, thanking her for her time. When they were gone Rin sank back into her stupor, staring into space.

"They'll be fine," said a voice behind her. She jumped.

"Stop doing that!" she said.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Doing what?"

"Sneaking up on me! It happens every time I see you!"

"Really? I hadn't realized," he said with a twinkle in his eye that suggested otherwise. Rin suddenly remembered what he had said before she went off on him.

"Who will be fine?" she asked him.

"Your…students." He said, suggesting that they could be something else to her.

She sighed. "I know…. It's just so nerve racking. How did you cope?"

He shrugged. "I tried not to think about it that much. Oh, and I read lots of Icha Icha"

Rin laughed. "What is it with you and those books?"

He shrugged again. "They're really good for taking you away from your problems,"

Rin didn't feel like laughing anymore. "Listen, Kakashi, thank you. For everything."

"No problem. I've been where you are, worried for my students even though I know that they can handle anything," he said.

"No, it's more than that," she said. "You always know exactly what to say, what I'm worried about, you even know when I'm lying. It's like you know me."

"Maybe I do, Rin" he said.

"B-but how do you know?" she asked.

He tapped the headband covering his eye. "The sharingan does have a knack for detecting genjutsu."

* * *

**We know, we're evil! We've been dying to add a cliffy in somewhere. Wow, it was only a couple months ago that we started this and it's already this far! Sorry that this chapter is a little late, but school's started, which means that we will have less time to write. Hopefully we get the next chapter out to you guys soon! It shouldn't be that hard to write, it will mostly focus on Rin and Kakashi. Oh, thanks to Kai Isolated for helping us get back on the right track.**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Sasuke wouldn't be such an ass prick and want to destroy all of Konoha.**

**Warning! We do read the manga so there will be mild spoilers. **

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Fifteen

Rin was speechless. He knew. No, he didn't _know_, he'd _known_. Past tense. If he had known, why hadn't he said anything? Why had he been as mysterious and annoying and lovable as ever? Because he was Kakashi, that's why.

"You jerk!" she yelled at him as she laughed in the relief of not having to lie. "Why did you have to wait until now to tell me that you knew? Why couldn't you have just come right out and said it?"

He smiled back at her. "Why did you have to wait for me to find out? Why couldn't _you _have told _me_?"

Rin's smile died. "Listen, I…I wanted to tell you," she realized as she said it that it was true. "But I couldn't. I couldn't face you, couldn't tell you what I did and why I did it. I was…afraid." Even know she could barely look at him, not wanting to see his expression.

"Why did you fake your death?" he asked. Rin realized that he might know who she is, but that he didn't know everything. She was surprised enough that it showed on her face.

"What?" Kakashi asked, not understanding why he was surprised.

"I…I just thought that you would have figured it out by now," she said.

"Well, I haven't had much to go on. Just you."

"No, not just me. Who else is there that might have given you a clue?" she asked.

"Who else…?" he asked, thinking perplexedly. Suddenly, it dawned on him. "Misaki and Yuuto," he said. She nodded, encouraging him to continue. "But they're what? Sixteen? They would have only been babies when you…" he trailed off, everything clicking.

"They weren't babies yet were they?" he asked, talking fast and pacing as he sorted it all out in his mind. "They were still inside you, growing." He didn't even look at her for confirmation, just continued pacing. "You panicked, you left, and you didn't tell anyone with the exception of the Hokage," his voice was verging on anger. "Do you have any idea how crushed I was when I thought that you were dead? I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. The only time that I got relief was when I was on missions and could pretend that every person I killed was the person who killed you. No one understood why I was so merciless then.

"Why couldn't you have told me? Why didn't you tell me that you were leaving to have-" he cut off. "Whose are they?" he asked. He hadn't even thought about that part of the equation. Rin looked up at him, surprise written all over her face.

"You don't know?" she asked.

"Of course I don't know! How would I…" he cut off again, remembering. Remembering the night when he had just come back from a mission and she brought him to her house to heal him, instead of making him to go to the hospital. When she had confessed how she felt about him and how he had confessed the same. Where they had become caught up in the moment and got carried away, going farther than either of them had gone before. When he left the next morning before she woke up, convinced that she would regret it and that he should pretend like it didn't happen.

"They're…mine," he said, shell-shocked. "But…why wouldn't you tell me? Did you think that I wouldn't want to know that I had children? That I wouldn't want to be a part of their lives?" he asked, angry now.

"Would you have?" she asked. "You left before I woke up Kakashi! Do you know what kind of signal that sends? That says that you regretted every minute of it and never want to talk about it again! That says that you want nothing to do with me. Is that what you meant to say? Because that's how I took it, and that's what I was thinking of when I left," she said, just as angry as he was.

"Of course that's not what I wanted you to think! I thought that you wanted it that way!"

"You thought that I wanted you to leave after I confessed my love to you? That I wanted everything to be the same as always between us? Why would you think that?" she asked.

"Because I didn't understand how you could love me!" he yelled, like it had been waiting for a chance to come out of his mouth, whether he wanted it to or not.

"You…didn't understand how I could love you? But…how could I not? How could I not love someone so brave and strong and kind and who never let me or anyone down? How could you not understand that?" she said, her voice softening with every word. "Loving you was the easiest thing that I've ever done."

Kakashi was speechless. He couldn't think of a thing to say. Instead he took the two steps that it took to close the distance between them and kissed her: hard and long and like he'd never kissed anyone before. The kiss was full of the longing that they had both felt during the years that Rin was gone, and the joy of finding each other again. Sadly, there was only so much oxygen deprivation that their bodies could take, forcing them to break apart.

Rin smiled. "I'm sorry."

Kakashi smiled back. "Apology accepted. Just don't leave me again."

"Never," Rin said before she went in for another kiss.

--

Misaki, Yuuto, and Sasuke walked out of the arena, feeling victorious. True, they weren't done with the exams _yet_, but getting through to the third round was good enough for them. They were greeted by Naruto and Sakura, looking hopeful.

"Well?" Sakura asked, getting impatient.

"We made it through to the third exam," Yuuto answered. Sakura squealed and ran over to Yuuto, flinging herself into his arms, kissing him. Naruto slapped Sasuke on the back, good naturedly.

"Let's celebrate! Ramen on me!" Naruto yelled. Everyone looked at him funny. "What? I'm not allowed to treat my friends to ramen?" Everyone just laughed and started walking.

--

Sakura laughed when Yuuto finished telling one of his many stories from when he and Misaki and traveled. She clung to him, holding him tightly. She was so worried during the exams that when she saw Yuuto come out of the building she couldn't resist throwing herself at him. She never wanted to let him go now. She pushed the thought that he had to compete again out of her mind for the time being, wanting to have fun.

"Eh? Sakura-chan?" she heard. She looked over at Naruto.

"You spaced out. Misaki just asked how your work at the hospital was going," Yuuto said.

Sakura blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry. It's going good. Tsunade is letting me take shorter shifts since I'm helping you guys out. I was worried at first, but with your mentor there everything is fine. She's an extraordinary medic." It was true. she hadn't once worried about whether the hospital would be okay without her since witnessing Rai work. She was easily up to par with Tsunade and herself.

"What about you, Naruto-kun?" she asked. "How's Hinata?"

Naruto blushed, ducking his head. "She's good. I'm, um, thinking of asking her to marry me," he mumbled, avoiding looking at them.

"Wow Naruto!" Misaki said, smiling broadly. "That's great! I love weddings," she said. What she didn't say was that she hoped that she would still be here when the wedding happened. She didn't know when they were planning on leaving.

"Well, I'm stuffed," Sakura said, breaking the silence that had fallen. "I think that it's about time we get going. It's getting late." Darness had fallen and it was starting to get colder.

"Yeah," Yuuto agreed. "We have to go home and share the news."

"We'll go with you," Naruto volunteered for Sakura and Sasuke. Misaki nodded, happy that she wouldn't be losing their company just yet.

They walked chatting about random things. Misaki and Yuuto were thinking of how weird it was to be going home to somewhere that they'd stayed at for more than a month. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were thinking of how much Misaki and Yuuto had changed their lives since they had come.

In no time they were at Yuuto and Misaki's house. Misaki invited them in, reveling in the feeling of just hanging out with friends. It was quiet when they walked in. Misaki turned on a couple lights and went to the living room and her friends followed.

"Make your selves at home," she said to them. "I'm just going to go tell Rai that we're here."

She walked upstairs, going to her mom's room. She walked down the hall, and knocked a couple times quietly before opening the door.

"Mom?" she asked. She didn't here anything so she turned on a light. What she saw made her shriek and turn around. It was her mother. And Kakashi. In bed together. Naked.

"_Mom_, a little warning please? That is not something that I needed to see!"

"I'm sorry, honey. I didn't know that you were home," she didn't sound sorry though. She sounded…happy. Misaki heard everyone running up the stairs. They were beside her too fast for her to react.

"We heard you scr- Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura said.

"Mom?" Yuuto asked.

"Wait. Mom?" Sasuke said, turning to Yuuto.

Kakashi sighed. "I think we have some explaining to do."

--

**Finally! Chapter fifteen! We are SO SORRY that it took so long to get out. Life got in the way. So, what did you think? Was it everything you hoped it would be? Were you disapointed? Come on! We need feedback! We don't know when we can get the next chapter out but it's going to be asap. Don't forget to review!!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	17. Authors note!

**Authers note**

* * *

You probably got a thing that said new chapter out or something like that if this story is on your watch list or whatever it is, I'm not really sure! I'm so sorry if you got really excited!! But I hate to tell you this is NOT a new chapter = (SORRY!!!

* * *

So any way, if you're wondering this is Savanna! Not Taylor! She usually posts the chapters and I wanted to post something so I guess I am….Not that you care probably….you probably just want to know what I'm going to say right? lol So I'm just going to get to it! =D

* * *

So we just got a review saying…well this.

_**-Please, please, please update again soon! I just read from chapters 1-16, and  
I'm totally addicted!  
... But then I saw that the last time you updated was like, last year...  
So please keep going with this and finish!  
**_

Id just likes to say we ARE going to finish!!!!!! No matter what! Even if Taylor ever decided to quit on me, not that I think you would Taylor, just saying! Well anyway, if she did, I would finish it my self! Even though it wouldn't be as good because, well, I'm good at coming up with the ideas, but not so good at putting them into words! But it would eventually get done! Ok now that you know that no matter what happens we are going to finish this story! Oh wait, I just thought of the one scenario where we wouldn't be able to finish, if BOTH hers and my computer crashed completely and didn't work and we couldn't get new ones! But let's just hope that never happens! Ok so moving on!

We would love to get more chapters out to you guys as fast as we could but we cant right now!! We are both in high school, and have a lot to do! She has band and swimming, and a whole lot of other stuff, and I have, well, I don't really do much after school, but I have too many other things to think about and like I basically said before, Taylor is the writer! And if I started writing the story would go downhill…fast!  
Ok, so getting to the REAL point of this now! We ARE going to finish it and start writing chapters, but NOT until summer, when school is out! Then we'll have nothing to do, and hopefully Taylor won't have too much band stuff to do! Me and her will see each other more and talk more about this then, but for now were way to busy! So I'm sorry that you have been waiting FOREVER for the next chapter! I feel REALLY bad now!! I just read the end of the last chapter and we left you with a cliffhanger!!!! I know how it feels to be reading a story and being left with one of those!!SORRY Your going to have 3 months of waiting!

Oh wait! Ok, so I have good news! I just read an email from Taylor and she has half of the next chapter done!!! So your wait for the next chapter won't be long at all! But that's no guarantee that there's going to be a lot more chapters soon, though. It just depends really. But PLAESE don't be mad or anything if after the next chapter there's not another one for a while! Ok so I don't really have anything else to say except what I've already said!  
WERE SORRY!!! And please be patient with us! :)

**

* * *

**

XOXOXOX  
Savanna!!!!!!!!

p.s. Even thought we haven't added a chapter recently, we would still LOVE to know what you think about the other chapters and what YOU think should have or have not happened! =D 


	18. Chapter Sixteen

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Kakashi would SO still be alive. **

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Sixteen

Rin sighed as she sat down on the couch, fully clothed, to Misaki's relief. "I guess I have some explaining to do," she said. They had relocated to the living room, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had offered to leave, but Rin told them to stay. Kakashi was there as well, standing quietly in the corner. Rin had dropped the genjutsu and explained that she was Yuuto and Misaki's mom.

"Damn right you do," Misaki said. Rin gave her a sharp look. Normally she refrained from using such language in front of her mother, but today was different. There wasn't anything that she hated more than being kept in the dark. She returned the look with a cold stare. "Explain."

"I guess I should start in the beginning then," Rin said. "I lived in Konoha until I was sixteen, as you know. I was on a team with Kakashi and Uchiha Obito," at the name Obito, Kakashi flinched. It had obviously brought bad memories to the surface. Rin continued. "Our sensei was the Godaime Hokage."

Misaki hadn't known that, but she didn't know what it had to do with the situation so she waited until her mom continued.

"I had had a crush on Kakashi for…I don't even know how long. It seemed like forever to me. I was just too shy to act on it. About four months before I left Konoha, Kakashi went on a mission that was supposed to last for two weeks. It was A ranked, and very dangerous. It was while he was away and I was spending my time wondering whether he would come back or not that I realized that I didn't have as much time as I thought I did.

"So, when he came home, covered in blood, I healed him, bringing him to my house. He hated, hates, hospitals. Then I told him how I felt. He, somewhat reluctantly told me the same. One thing led to another and…anyway, you get the picture. I woke up the next day and he was gone. I just figured that he didn't want anything to do with me. I never mentioned it again, even though it hurt to do so."

Misaki thought she knew where this was going, but didn't comment.

"About a month later I started to feel weak and queasy. I did a self exam and found out that I was pregnant, something that I had definitely not anticipated. I panicked. I didn't tell anyone, not even Kakashi. I figured that if I ignored it, it would just go away. It didn't of course, and eventually I realized that it wasn't going to, that I needed to do something about it. Not having it wasn't even an option. I'm a medic, my job is to help keep people alive, not kill them.

"So I came up with a plan. I went to the hokage and explained my situation and my plan. He wasn't very happy about it, but he agreed. So, I had him fake my death while I escaped. No one thought that I was still alive, off somewhere to have a child. Or two," she added with a smile. "And there you have it. From there I traveled around the world with you two, teaching you everything I could. Eventually I got homesick, so I came up with the idea of the Chuunin Exams. Kakashi eventually saw through my genjutsu, we made up, and here we are."

She looked around the room. Everyone was staring, trying to process all of the information that had been dumped into their laps.

"So Kakashi is…our father?" Yuuto asked. He was having trouble computing.

Rin nodded. "Yes, though he didn't know it until…" she looked at her watch. "About three hours ago. Misaki has his hair and Yuuto has his eyes. I'm surprised that you guys hadn't figured this out before. We've been here…what? About two months? I thought you guys had better observation skills than that," She teased.

"Well, considering the fact that you never mentioned anything about our father, I don't think you should be that surprised at all. We figured that he was dead," Misaki said, still angry with her mother. Yuuto reluctantly nodded at this statement. They had spent a lot of time discussing the matter when they were younger, and that was the only reasonable conclusion that they could come up with.

"Look," Rin said. "I know that it must have been hard for you two, growing up without a father, but I didn't have the slightest idea what to tell you. How could I say that 'Oh, you have a father, but he doesn't know that he's your father, so don't go looking for him or you'll scare him half to death'? I couldn't say that to you guys! Not to mention that the whole village thought that I was dead, so if you two showed up and started telling people who your mother was…" She trailed off, realizing that half the reason she didn't tell her children about the village she grew up in and their father was because she was afraid that they would somehow spill her secret. "Oh, I'm a horrible mother," she groaned, putting her face in her hands.

"Don't say that mom!" Misaki cried. "You're a wonderful mother; we're just a little bit shocked over the information overload. It's not everyday you meet your father," she added a smile, trying to lighten the mood a bit. Yuuto still appeared to be in shock, so she didn't press him to comfort their mother like she normally would have. Misaki was definitely still mad about being kept in the dark for so long, but she pushed it to the back of her mind for now. There wasn't anything she could do about it and it was making her mom upset.

"Well," Sakura said, thinking of how early she has to get up in the morning. "I have to get going. I'll see you all tomorrow!" She got up and kissed Yuuto goodnight on the cheek "You two should probably go home soon also," she said looking at Naruto and Sasuke. "You both are going to help me clean out Tsunade's office tomorrow. It looks like Lee drank sake and went crazy in there. I expect you there at 5:00 am tomorrow morning." Naruto groaned and bowed his head. Sasuke just looked slightly annoyed. They both dutifully followed Sakura out the door, saying their goodbye's on the way out.

"So...," Misaki said after they left, "Me and Yuuto should probably get to bed. We've had a long day, to say the least." She got up and kissed Rin on the cheek, while prodding Yuuto out of his stupor. He blinked sleepily and got up. "Night mom," they both said. "...Goodnight Kakashi..." They said as an afterthought. They left the room and Rin and Kakashi looked at each other.

"I should probably-" Kakashi said.

"Yeah, that would be a good-" Rin said.

They looked at each other again. "Well, I'm just going to go now then..." Kakashi said.

"Yeah, you should...I'll see you tomorrow." Rin said. Kakashi walked out, and Rin watched after him for a moment before closing the door and leaning against it. She leaned there for a moment and sighed, letting the days events catch up to her. "What have I got myself into?" she wondered aloud.

* * *

**Finally! We are once again VERY VERY VERY sorry that it's so so so late. I guess that we aren't very good at multitasking :P. We are also sorry that it's so short. I wanted to make it longer, but Savanna thought that a) it would take longer, and b) that this was the perfect place to end it. And since I agreed with her on both points I couldn't exactly say no...thanks everyone for sticking with us! We really hope to get the next chapter out soon, but we can't predict the future. I promise we'll try really hard! I hope you like this chapter and please review!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	19. Chapter Seventeen

**Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto. If we did Hinata would have finally told Naruto that she loved him in a _much_** **different way than she did.**

**Warning! We do read the manga, so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Seventeen

Misaki sighed at the sunlight starting to filter through her blinds. She hadn't gotten much sleep that night. She had been up thinking about the whole thing with her mom and Kakashi. And, more surprisingly, her growing feelings for Sasuke. All she could think about was that the only reason her mom was in that mess in the first place was because she and Kakashi hadn't been honest about their feelings for each other. I mean, what if something like that happened to her? Not that she was planning to shack up with Sasuke and get pregnant anytime soon...but...you never know. What would have happened if they'd just been honest with each other in the first place? She...might not even exist! That thought was just too weird. Assuming that she did exist no matter what, would she have had a father her whole life? Would she have lived in Konoha and known Sasuke and Sakura and Naruto growing up? Would she and Sasuke be...together?

There she went again. Thinking. And thinking. The only cure for thinking is doing. She got up, a bit slower than normal, due to her fatigue, but she managed to get out of bed and into the bathroom relatively safely, only tripping once. Since she hadn't fully woken up yet, she just grabbed whatever she could to wear and put it on. What she found just happened to be a rather low cut t-shirt and tight shorts. She pulled her hair back in a quick ponytail, threw her shoes and her weapons pouch on, and was out the door. Maybe it was her early morning fogginess but she grabbed her mom's grocery list too, thinking that she might appreciate the help.

_Okay, let's see here...strawberries, eggs, bread, chicken, lettuce, banan_- her thoughts were cut off when she ran into something, or, rather, someone. She stepped back, immediately launching into an apology and stopped short.

"Oh, hi Sasuke," she said, probably a bit less cheerfully than normal.

"Hey," he said, giving her a once over.. He couldn't help but notice that she was dressed a bit more...provocatively than normal. He vaguely wondered why she would dress differently today than normal. He was distracted when she spoke.

"So...what's up?" she asked. She'd never seen Sasuke on this side of town before and was a little curious.

"Grocery shopping," he said. "Sakura and I are taking turns buying vegetable fore the dobe until he and Hinata move in together. If was didn't he would never eat anything buy ramen." Misaki laughed, thinking that this seemed very likely. She also thought that it was kind of...sweet. I mean, to care about your friend enough to get groceries for them...okay, well, maybe not. I mean, she was getting them for her mom. But it's the thought that counts. I mean, he obviously cared about Naruto's health.

"I'm grocery shopping too. For my mom. You know, since things are a little...strange right now. With the whole Kakashi thing and all." Sasuke did know. It was wired for everybody. Kakashi? Having children? Those two things just didn't really go together in his opinion.

"So," she said, "You want to shop together? We're probably getting pretty much the same stuff." He agreed and they started walking. He had to admit, grocery shopping was a bit more fun when you had someone to talk to. Plus he got quite a view when she bent over to look through a carton of oranges on the ground. Not that anyone looking would even have a clue he was checking her out...probably. After all, he had learned from the best. *coughkakashicough*

Eventually they both had everything that they had come for and started back to their houses. He insisted on walking her back to hers first, since she had more groceries, even after she assured him that she was just as much a ninja as he was and that she could handle it. _Oh well_, she thought, _no one can ever say that Sasuke's not chivalrous_. When they got to her house she thanked him and said goodbye as she carried all the groceries in. It wasn't until she looked in her mirror that she realized what she was wearing, upon which time she had a mini heart attack. _Sasuke must think I'm a slut_. She thought._ A big slut_, she amended after she looked at herself from the back.

A few blocks down the road Sasuke was thinking to himself how he wished that Misaki would dress like that more often...

--

Rin yawned and stretched, opening her eyes. Then she groaned. She had slept in WAY too late. It looked like it was almost noon. And she had grocery shopping to do. She stumbled down the stairs, intent on getting her morning (erm, afternoon) coffee before she did anything else. The pot was almost full before she even realized that somehow all the grocery's were bought and put away. She smiled, thinking about how much she loved her children. She loaded her coffee with cream and sugar then headed back upstairs to get dressed.

Unlike Misaki she actually paid attention to what she put on, so she didn't look like a slut. She just wore what she normally wore. It didn't matter, she didn't have to impress anyone...wait...what if she ran into Kakashi sometime today? She looked down at herself. _This won't do..._

That's how Rin ended up trying on approximately fifty different outfits before walking out her bedroom door. She finally decided on a dark green tank top that ended just under her bust, dark grey shorts that lived up to their name, her weapons pouch and headband, and her normal black shoes. _There_, she thought, _Now if I run into Kakashi at least I'll look hot._

She walked out her bedroom door and saw herself in the bathroom mirror. _Oh my God I look like a slut_! she thought. Just as she was turning around to go back and change for the fifty-first time there was a knock at the door. _Please God_, she thought, _please let Misaki or Yuuto be home. Please_! When she didn't hear anything even close to resembling one of her children on their way to open the door she sighed. _I guess it'll have to be me then...I really hope it's not Tsunade. What would she think if she saw me like this? I mean, what was I thinking? I'm not seventeen anymore I can't pull this off. And what if Misaki saw me like this? She would die instantly of embarass-_

Her train of thought was broken when she opened the door and saw Kakashi standing their. _Shit_, was the first thing that entered her mind. _Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit_. I've gotten myself into a lot of awkward situations but so far this one takes the cake...

"Um...uh...um..." was all that came out of Kakashi's mouth. _Crap. He's thinking about how much of a slut I am_, she thought.

On the contrary. When she opened the door he automatically gave her a once over then couldn't keep his mouth from dropping to the floor in shock. Rin looked...hot. More than hot actually. Stunning, show stopping, heart breaking. Gorgeous. Of course she didn't notice that his gaze was anything but repulsed because she was too busy thinking about a way to get herself out of the situation that was, in her mind, a problem.

"So, um, so why are you here?" she asked. _Smooth, _she thought,_ way smooth_.

He quickly shook his head, as if to snap himself out of a stupor. "Sorry?" he asked. _Smooth_, he thought, _way smooth_.

"Why are you here?" she asked again.

"Oh, right," he said. "I was wondering if Misaki and Yuuto were home. The whole team is having a meeting on the bridge in an hour."

Rin let herself be disappointed that he wasn't here for her for about a millisecond before she snapped herself out of it. "Sorry," she said. "They're not here right now. Do you want to come in anyway?" _Well_, she thought, _He's already seen me like this, there's no point in not being courteous._

"Sure," he said. They walked inside and she offered him tea, which he accepted. They sat in her living room silently sipping their tea for a few minutes before she broke the silence.

"So what's the meeting about?"

"Oh, just about the third part of the exams. We're going to need to start training again soon. And train harder than before."

"Oh, okay" she said. And once again they were silent. A few minutes passed of them awkwardly drinking their tea and staring at each other.

"I like your-"

"How's your-"

They both said at the same time. Which in turn caused them to both be silent.

"What were you-?"

"Go ahead-"

They once again talked at the same time. Kakashi held up a hand and told her to go first.

"I was just going to ask how your tea was," she said.

"It's fine," he said. "I was just going to say that I like your mugs. They're cute." The mugs in question had ninja headbands and weapons all over them.

"Thanks," she said with a smile. She saw them and immediately bought them. They were just too adorable. They lapsed into silence once again. Finally Kakashi had had enough.

"Okay, that's it," he said. "We have plenty to talk about. Plenty. The problem is, we don't know how to talk about it. What we need is a time and place that we can talk without feeling awkward. Such as over dinner"

Rin was a bit speechless. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"Of course I'm asking you on a date! We can have a relationship without going on a date! Plus we need to talk about things. Things like how I have children now, and what part I'm going to play in their lives."

She was once again speechless. She hadn't expected Kakashi to want to talk about those things. Who would? They're awkward and uncomfortable. But...the fact that he did want to talk about them, or at least acknowledge that they're necessary said a lot about him. Like that he doesn't run away from things.

Kakashi stood.. "I'll pick you up at seven tomorrow," he said, and then he left, leaving Rin to stare after him in shock. Once she snapped out of it an age old question ran through her head. _What am I going to wear? Definitely not this_. Of course she was unaware that Kakashi was hoping that she would wear that...or something like it.

--

"You're perfectly healthy," Sakura told a ninja that came in for their after mission check up. The ninja thanked her and left. Sakura looked at the clock and swore. It was almost nine in the evening and she was supposed to be meeting Ino at a quarter after. They were going out, because Ino complained that she Sakura was spending too much time with Yuuto. She rushed out of the examining room and checked out at the front desk, then she ran home.

There was no time to showers, sadly, so she just brushed her hair and her teeth, then put on some make-up and spritzed herself with perfume.. It was ten after nine. She tore open her closet door and grabbed the first things that weren't her training or hospital clothes that she could find. Then she grabbed some heels and put them on while running out the door. She was oblivious to the looks that she got on the way.

She stopped in front of the restaurant, slightly out of breath, but still only a minute late. "I made it!" she said to herself, doing a little victory dance. It took her a second to realize that everyone was staring at her. "What?" she asked.

"Damn girl, who are you trying to impress?" Ino asked.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked her.

"Did you even look at yourself in the mirror before you left?" Ino asked.

Sakura, realizing that she had, in fact, not, looked down at herself. What she saw made her shriek in what was pretty close to horror. "What...am...I...wearing?" she asked.

"Well," Ino said. "You're wearing a low cut red halter top that ends about an inch before your white mini skirt. You finished the ensemble with strappy red high heels. You look hot."

Sakura just stared at herself in shock. How those things ended up on her body, let alone in her closet, she had no idea. Well...maybe she did have an idea.

"Ino," she asked in a sugary sweet voice.

"Yeah?" Ino replied.

"_What_ did you do?" This was not said in a sweet voice this was said angrily. Well, more like yelled.

"Me?" Ino asked. "I didn't do anything. You did this all by yourself. I just put the outfit in your closet is all, and that wasn't even recently, that was like a couple months ago. This was all your doing."

Sakura sighed, knowing that it was true. "Well, I'll see you later," she said, walking away.

"Where do you think your going?" Ino asked.

"Home," she said. "So I can change out of this slut outfit."

"You're not going anywhere," Ino said, grabbing her arm. "We are going to go out and have fun. And you are going to loosen up. Come on Sakura, you look hot. Use it to your advantage. It's actually very empowering to have to tell guys no. You'll see." Sakura struggled for a minute, then, realizing that Ino wasn't going to let go of her gave up.

"Fine," she said. And they were off, Ino dragging Sakura behind her. They went to a couple clubs and a couple of bars, but neither of them drank very much, even though they were aloud. There wasn't a drinking age for ninja, but they had too much fun making fun of the drunk people to want to be drunk themselves. And Sakura realized that it really was empowering to have guys want you, and then to tell them no. For someone who spent a pretty good part of their life waiting for a guy to make a move, this was a nice change. Finally, they wore themselves out from all the dancing they did and started walking home, laughing about the ways some of the drunk guys had tried to 'seduce' them. They were having so much fun that they didn't notice the group of people walking towards them.

"Sakura?" she heard someone ask. She looked up and there was Yuuto. "Oh, hi Yuuto," she said, walking up and giving him a kiss on the cheek, momentarily forgetting about what she was wearing. It was only when she saw Yuuto give her a once over that she remembered. Then she blushed. "Oh, um, I can explain. You see, I was running late at the hospital, and I was supposed to be meeting Ino, and I had to rush home, and I just grabbed whatever I saw and-"

She was cut off when Yuuto kissed her. "You don't have to explain anything," he said. "I like it."

"You do? Really? Cause I personally think that I look like a slut," she said. Yuuto laughed.

"You could never look like a slut," he said. "You're too beautiful."

That's when Sakura kissed him. "But the next time you dress like that I want to be with you. I can't risk you being taken away from me," he said. She laughed and they walked home.

* * *

**Whew! I think that's the longest chapter we've ever written. How was it? I know it's kind of filler-ish, but it does advance the relationships between the characters, and it all fits together nicely, don't you think? When we started writing this chapter we had no clue what it was going to be, we just wrote. It wasn't until we were halfway through Rin's section that we even thought of putting a Sakura section in there xD. Well, there's only about a month left of school left, then we'll be able to write more and get chapters out faster. Next chapter...Kakashi and Rin's date, maybe? What do YOU think?**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	20. Chapter Eighteen

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Kakashi never would have been dead.**

**Warning! We do read the manga so there will be mild spoilers**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Eighteen

_This is all wrong_, Rin thought as she tried on about the twentieth outfit. _Normally people go on a dates, get married and then have kids, and here we are, two kids, no dates, and definitely no marriage_. She took off the dress that she had on and, of course, chose the first one. It was a deep green, the same color as her eyes, with a halter neck, and it feel to just above her knees. She wore classic black pumps with it, and pulled her hair half back.

"Misaki!" she yelled.

"Yeah, mom?" Misaki asked. She stopped when she got to the door frame, her eyes going big.

"Jeez mom, you look hot," she said.

"You really think so?" Rin asked. "It's not too much? The hem isn't too long is it? Or too short?"

Misaki just shook her head. "It's definitely not too much, too long, or too short. It's perfect. Now, you better get going it's almost-" She cut off when the doorbell rang. "Well, guess it is seven then."

Rin was shocked. Kakashi was actually on time. She hurried down the stairs to get the door. She opened it to him leaning cliche-ly against the door frame. He pulled some flowers from, well, somewhere, and gave them to her. The were yellow roses, her favorite.

"You didn't have to get me these!" she said. He just smiled. Misaki came down the stairs and took the flowers from her mom. "I'll just put these in some water," she said. They barely paid any attention to her.

"Shall we?" Kakashi asked.

"We shall," Rin answered.

--

Kakashi was having a great time. He brought her to the nicest restaurant in the village and they had a wonderful dinner. The desert had just been served, and he knew that it was time to cut to the chase and get it over with.

"So, we need to talk," he began. Rin frowned and started to protest.

"But...does it have to be now? We've been having such a good time!"

"I know, but if we don't talk about it now we probably never will," Kakashi said. He didn't want to talk about it any more than she did, but they needed to.

"So...Misaki and Yuuto. I want to be part of there lives," he stated bluntly.

"Well, I want you to be too, but I think that's up to them," she said. "They shouldn't have a problem with it, it's not like it's your fault that you weren't around when they were growing up."

Kakashi hoped that she was right about them not having a problem with him. Of course he felt that it was his duty as their father to be part of their lives, but he also genuinely liked them, and it was steadily working its way up to love. Now came the hard part.

"And..." he began. "I also want to be a part of...your life," he said. Rin was a little taken aback. She hadn't really expected this.

"I...I think that I would like that," she said at last. He smiled.

"Good," he said and kissed her.

--

They were in front of Rin's house. Kakashi, the gentleman that he was, offered to walk her home. The whole way back all that Rin could think about was how blissfully happy she was. She finally, finally, had the man of her dreams, her kids were happy, they had a permanent home...everything was great. She was brought back to the present by Kakashi brushing her hair out of her face.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked gently, looking into her eyes.

She returned his look. "How wonderfully, completely happy I am right now," she answered truthfully. They stood like that for what seemed like an eternity, looking into each others eyes, conveying their feeling without words. Finally Kakashi leaned forward and captured her lips in a kiss. She kissed him back eagerly, throwing her arms around him. His kisses were so much like him. Sometimes lazy, other times powerful. This was one of the powerful ones. She really couldn't help but give in...not that she didn't want to.

She sighed into his mouth, pulling away. "I really should be going inside..." She trailed off and kissed him. She pulled back again a while later. "I mean it, Misaki and Yuuto are probably waiting for-" This time he kissed her. "Oh who cares," she mumbled into his mouth.

Let's just say that Kakashi had to use his advanced ninja skills to sneak out of the house before the kids woke up...

--

A few weeks later Misaki started getting nervous. _Really_ nervous. So nervous that the only time that she wasn't nervous was when she was training. That had to mean that the exams were getting closer. She was right. They day that she got her one week notice note she just about had a heart attack. She just didn't feel like she was ready. Not to mention Sasuke was being a complete ass prick and wouldn't train with her every day. Didn't he understand that she _needed _to get better at sword fighting? It was her only way of winning, her only way of _surviving_. The day she got the note was one of the days that he wouldn't train with her, so she took matters into her own hands.

Anyone who saw her on her way must have known that she was a woman on a mission. She moved quickly and purposefully, her eyes not really seeing anything but her goal: Sasuke's house. She was sick and tired of his excuses. He was going to help her and he was going to help her NOW.

When Misaki got to his house she wasted no time pounding on the door. "Sasuke open up! I need to talk to you!" She heard his footsteps on the stairs and a sigh before he opened the door.

"What do you want Misaki?" he asked impatiently. She showed him the letter she'd got the day before.

"Do you see this?" she asked rhetorically. "_This_ is the letter telling me that I have one week until the third part of the exams. _One week_! And where's the guy who's teaching me kenjutsu just one week before the exam that could kill me? _In his house doing nothing_! That's where!"

Sasuke just sighed at her outburst. _Women_, he thought. "Misaki," he said patiently. "Do you know why I don't train with you every day?" he asked.

Misaki realized that no, she didn't know why he didn't train with her every day. She shook her head no.

"I don't train with you every day because to win the exams you have to know more than one thing. _Because_ if all you did was practice kenjutsu before the exams when you just started learning it, you would be dead before you could blink. _That's _why I'm at home instead of practicing with you, and I'm sorry that you didn't realize it before."

Misaki sat there stunned for a minute before something that he said sunk in. Was he implying that she wasn't good enough with her sword to use it in the exams? For a second she thought that she was going to get angry again, but instead she started crying. God, these exams must really be messing with me, she though. I never cry. And why now, why in front of Sasuke of all people?

Sasuke closed his eyes and sent a quick prayer for strength as Misaki sunk onto his steps, putting her head into her hands. _Stupid bipolar woman_, he thought. "Why are you crying?" he asked, sitting down beside her.

"I-I don't know," she said. "I'm just so nervous, and I feel like I'm not good enough, and you basically just said that I suck at kenjutsu. It's just too much to handle!"

"First off, I never said that you suck at kenjutsu. I said that you need more than kenjutsu at the stage you're at. Which is remarkably good for how long you've been training. Second, you have to get over being nervous. Embrace it, don't fight it, and it won't be so distracting anymore. And never say that you're not good enough. If you say it too much it starts to become true."

By the time he was finished Misaki was laughing at herself for being so dumb. She was sitting her crying in front of Sasuke's house for God's sake. And not for the usual reasons either. She looked over at him.

"Thank you Sasuke, for letting me know how stupid I was being," She said, smiling at him. "No problem," he said, just looking at her. They both just sat there and looked at each other for a second, then they started leaning toward each other, until they were just a few centimeters apart. "Should I kiss you now?" Sasuke asked. She could feel his breath on her lips. "Yes," she answered. Before the word was completely passed her lips his mouth was on hers. It was like nothing she'd ever felt. Yes, she'd kissed a few guys before, but not like this. Not so...perfectly. The way Sasuke kissed her wasn't shy or sweet. It was powerful and needing, just how she'd always imagined it would be.

She sighed in blissful contentment, reveling in the moment. The perfect moment where all of her fantasies came true. Where Sasuke was hers and she was his. She broke away, "Sasuke, what does this mean?" she asked. Sasuke scowled.. "I'm kissing you aren't I? What do you THINK it means?" Misaki smiled and kissed him again. "Good answer," she said a moment later.

* * *

**Okay, here's this chapter, finally! I've had half of it sitting on my computer for a couple weeks and it was about time I finished it! Sasuke and Misaki getting together wasn't really planned beforehand, but we thought that we should get it out of the way before the next part of the chuunin exams, which is coming up veeeery soon. Savanna's going to take a whack at writing the fight scenes since I'm so horrible at them, so we'll see how that turns out. We're going to try to update more now that school's out. So hopefully you'll be seeing the next chapter soon! Don't forget to tell us what you think. The more reviews the more we want to write! **

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	21. Chapter Nineteen

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Danzou would SO not be the new hokage.**

**Warning! We do read the manga so there will be mild spoilers.**

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Nineteen

The week before the exams were a blur for Misaki and Yuuto. They were told to just relax by Sasuke and Sakura and not think of the exams, but even though no one could tell, they were constantly worrying.

On the day of the exams Misaki and Yuuto both woke up early to meet with Sasuke and Kakashi.

Misaki wore what she normally did: a tight black skirt with navy shorts underneath. Her shirt was tight and sleeveless in navy blue, with a long sleeved fishnet shirt over it. She also wore a weapons pouch and had black shoes.

Yuuto also wore what he normally did-baggy black shorts that went to his knees with a tight navy blue shirt under a black jacket, much like Naruto's orange one, that was left open. He wore a weapons pouch and navy blue shoes. He also wore a pair of navy blue wrist length gloves that were a lot like Sakura's.

On the way to the meeting spot Yuuto couldn't stop fidgeting with his gloves, and Misaki couldn't stop messing with her shirt. They looked at each other and said "You're nervous aren't you?" at the same time, as if they really could read each others minds.

"No," they said at the same time again. Misaki looked embarrassed and Yuuto sighed.

"We both are, huh? I thought I'd be the only one," he said.

"Me too," Misaki said, looking slightly relieved. She paused for a moment, thinking of what Sasuke told her and added, "We shouldn't be! We're strong enough, and have been training for a month!" Yuuto smiled at her silently agreeing. They walked the rest of the way to the meeting spot in silence, both full of new confidence.

As they reached the meeting place they saw Sasuke and surprisingly, Kakashi standing there. They wondered why he wasn't late.

"Okay, now that everyone is here, I guess its my time to give you a little pep talk right? Well, you are all great ninja and are going to do fine! So, now we can get going!" They took off toward the arena, slightly disheartened by Kakashi's less than spectacular pep talk.

Once at the arena, Kakashi stopped with them in front of the door that Sasuke, Misaki, and Yuuto were supposed to go through to get to the field. Kakashi turned around, looked very serious and said "A little advice, try not to die! Oh, and good luck!" With that he smiled, did a hand sign and disapeared in a puff.

Sasuke, Misaki, and Yuuto just sweat dropped, looked at each other, and entered the arena. It was huge. Every seat was full, and everyone was cheering. They could hear there names mixed in with the cheers and it gave them all a bit of shaky confidence.

Inside they saw the other teams: Suigetsu, Karin, Jugo, the sound team: Katsuro, Tadao, Hitomi, and the unknown sand team all in a line. They took there spots in the line and as soon as Karin saw Sasuke her eyes lit up and she said " Hiiii Sasuke-kun!!!" Sasuke just ignored her and Misaki smirked while thinking, 'If she tries anything she's dead.'

Then a guy in traditional chuunin clothes, a bandanna around his head, and a senbon sticking out of his mouth popped out of nowhere behind the group of gennin, making all of them, besides Sasuke and the unknown sand team, jump. They all turned around. Misaki and Karin were mad about being surprised and glared evilly at the guy, who just laughed nervously a scratched the back of his head.

"Okay, so my name is Shiranui Genma and I will be your proctor for the third exams. I already know who all of you are. So, are you ready to know who your gonna fight?" Everyone nodded and Genma said "Okay, Sasuke with Katsuro, Misaki with Tadao, Yuuto with Hitomi, Suigetsu with Chou, Karin with Emi, Jugo with Gorou," Misaki did a double take. Two of the sand team members were girls, with only one guy.

"The teams were picked at random, so don't think we tried to fix it or anything," Genma said. "Also the first to fight will be Karin and Emi. Now everyone not fighting please exit the arena."

--

There was a bit of nervous energy in the air as the teams climbed the steps up to the balcony. Misaki didn't know much about Tadao. She eyed his green hair and almost girlish beauty with interest. She knew one of his techniques, the mystical senses block, but she didn't think that it would work as well without his pink haired teammate there with him. He was looking straight ahead with a blank expression. She hoped that she would be able to figure out something else about him before their fight.

Yuuto looked at Hitomi's pink hair and couldn't help but think of Sakura. He knew that she was in the audience somewhere, but he couldn't see her. He remembered Hitomi's weird technique that they saw during the second exam. It was some genjutsu, and Yuuto knew that it had something to do with her eyes and her voice combined, but that was about it. Short of gagging her he wasn't really sure what he could do to keep her from using it on him. He would have to figure something out during their fight.

Sasuke was pumped. He got the guy that he wanted. Katsuro with the long red braid and the huge killing intent was going to be fun. He remembered his deadly scream attack and how it had killed those chuunin fast, but he also noticed that they were under some kind of restraint when he killed them. He thought that the technique maybe didn't work with a moving target, like Ino's body swapping one, but he couldn't be sure. He would just have to see.

They reached the top just in time for Genma to say "Go."

--

As Misaki Watched Karin and Emi fight she started thinking. Thinking about a lot of things. This surprised her. She'd expected to be too nervous to even function, and here she was, forming coherent thoughts and complete ideas. She thought a lot about her and Sasuke. It couldn't be denied that she liked him; a lot. The question was, how did he feel about her?

After their kiss Sasuke had hinted that he wanted her as his girlfriend, but so far he hadn't done anything to back that up. He'd barely talked to her, let alone kissed her again. Had he changed his mind? Did he never really mean what he said? Or had she completely misinterpreted everything? She knew enough about Sasuke to realize that there was no way that he was just too nervous to talk to her. She desperately wanted to know what his deal was, but now obviously wasn't the time.

Karin was still fighting. She looked liked she was in pretty bad shape. Despite all of the sour feelings between them, Misaki hoped that she pulled though. Karin really wasn't a bad person, she was just a little bit too obsessed with Sasuke for her liking.

Misaki's mind drifted again. She found herself wondering about her mom and Kakashi. What was going on _there_? Were they friends? Were they dating? Were they practically engaged? Misaki had no idea. Her mom didn't talk about it much. Misaki hoped that they would work out this time. She really didn't want to see her moms heart broken. She also kind of liked the idea of having a dad, a complete family.

Wondering about her mom made her wonder if they permanently lived in Konoha now or if they were just stopping through. As much as she liked traveling, she really hoped that they would stay in Konoha. She loved the people, the village, her friends. They were all a part of her now.

Misaki's thoughts continued like this for a few minutes until she was brought back to reality by the announcement of the winner: Karin. She had come back and won, but barely. She looked like she was about to fall unconscious, like her opponent. Even though she won she still might not become a chuunin, but it sure upped her chances.

Misaki watched as the medics came with a stretcher for Karin's opponent and led them both out of the arena. Everything was quiet for a moment before Genma announced the next pair of opponents:

"Tadao and Misaki."

Misaki sighed and jumped off the balcony into the arena. this wasn't totally unexpected.

"All right, let's get this over with," she said, to no one in particular. Tadao sneered, marring his perfect face.

"I think that this will be over even faster than you think," he said.

Misaki just raised an eyebrow. "We'll just have to see, won't we?"

They squared off, waiting for the command.

"Go," Genma said. And they went.

* * *

**Hey, sorry for the wait! We've been busy. This chapter is a little different from the rest. Savanna wrote the first part, and I fixed it up, because we wanted to see how it turned out. We're sorry that it's a little short, but we'll try to get a longer one out next time! Please tell us what you think!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


	22. Chapter Twenty

**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. If we did Sakura wouldn't break down in tears every time Sasuke's name was mentioned. **

**Warning! We do read the manga so there will be mild spoilers. **

* * *

Rin's Return

Chapter Twenty

Misaki waited for Tadao to make the fist move. She didn't want to open herself up to an attack more than necessary. It seemed that Tadoa didn't have the same idea, because he attacked right away., lunging toward her. She sidestepped and used his momentum to flip him on his back, but he was right back up a second later.

Tadoa started running around her quickly, until he was a blur. Misaki pulled her sword out of its sheath and held out in front of her, bracing herself for an attack. She was standing still, shifting her eyes trying to watch him, but he was going so fast he was a blur. She heard him shout something, but couldn't tell what it was due to his speed. Suddenly her vision started to go black and the sounds of the crowd grew fainter. She knew that she had to break out of the circle he had created. She blindly thrust with her sword hoping to hit him, but she only felt air. She was getting desperate. She could barely feel, see, or hear anything, and she knew that her senses of taste and smell weren't working either. It was like her senses had been blocked.

_That's it_! She thought. She remembered when she fist saw him during the second part of the exam. He had used a jutsu called the Mystical Senses Block. That must have been what she heard him yell, and he was probably doing the hand signs while running. Now, what else did she know about it? She remembered that before he used it the pink haired girl, Hitomi, used some type of genjutsu on the other team. Now why would she need to use the genjutsu if he could just do this? All the genjutsu did was keep them from…moving! The opponent had to be still for this to work! Staying in a defensive stance was the wrong thing to do, she had to move!

She couldn't see or hear, but she somehow knew that he wasn't circling her anymore. He must think that she was fully incapacitated. But she could still feel the sword in her hand faintly, so she wasn't completely under yet. She experimentally wiggled her toes. She could feel them, but barely. She'd have to be very careful about how she moved. She waited a few seconds, bent her knees as much as she could, then jumped straight up into the air. She could already tell that the jutsu was weakening. When she landed she ran to her direct right, then forward, then to the left, trying to stay away from where she thought Tadao was. She could see again! She ran around the arena a few times and she got all of her senses back.

She looked over at Tadao. He was just standing there, with a slightly shocked look on his face. She lunged and tackled him, pinning her sword to his throat. She smirked, he stared, even more shocked. Then…he poofed into smoke. Misaki cursed under her breath. Scanning the arena for him. She couldn't see him anywhere, but there was a small clump of trees on her right, near the arena wall. She focused all of her senses over there, waiting. There! She thought, sensing movement near the tree farthest to the left. She threw a kunai and saw a bird fly out. She sweat dropped._ So much for looking cool_, she thought.

Then where is he? She wondered. He wasn't anywhere around her, or above her, which only left…beneath her! She realized it just in time to jump out of reach of his searching arm. She mentally cursed herself for falling for such an old trick while doing back flips across the stadium, landing underneath the balcony where the other ninja were watching. She mentally went through her list of jutsu. A water jutsu wouldn't be of any help…neither would a genjutsu. She thought a bit more and remembered one time, in one of the villages that they visited when one of the kids taught her how to make a ball out of anything by using chakra. Especially dirt. Like the kind that the arena floor was made of. Yeah, that might work.

She did a few hand signs and created five shadow clones. She did a more complicated pattern and about fifty dirt balls, about the size of soccer balls, appeared lined up in front of her shadow clones. She really liked to play soccer with the kids in the villages they visited, and she hoped that she remembered the way to kick it so it generated a lot of power. Tadao was standing on the other side of the arena. She narrowed her eyes, concentrated, and she and her shadow clones each kicked a ball at the same time. Tadao dodged them all. That was okay, it was just a test run. She made some more balls and got ready for the next kick.

She kicked again, then, even before the balls reached Tadao, kicked another round. She continued like that, kicking round after round, making more balls between, until there was so much dust kicked up that she couldn't even see halfway across the field. She waited, on alert, until it settled. She wasn't sure what she expected to see, but it definitely wasn't this. Tadao was against the far wall, looking pretty worse for wear. He dropped to the ground and looked to be out cold. The arena was silent. Genma walked over to Tadao and nudged him with his foot. Tadao didn't stir.

"The winner is…Misaki," he said at last. Misaki smiled and the arena erupted into applause, cheering for her. She watched as the medical team put Tadao on a stretcher and carry him out. One of the medic nin came over and escorted her out the same door they took Tadao through, saying that she would need an exam before they could let her go. She gladly went with him. She was a little bit surprised that she won so easily. She expected it to be harder. She must have just gotten lucky.

--

Kakashi watched a Misaki, his daughter (a concept that was still very new to him), was escorted out by the medic nin. He really hadn't expected to feel so...worried about her. He'd seen Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke go through this many times, and they were like his children, right? Right? Well, judging by his reaction to their chuunin exams and his reaction to Misaki's, real children and adoptive children weren't nearly as close as he thought.

What he'd felt during part of her fight was raw fear. It took all of his self restraint to keep himself from going into that arena and fighting with her. Or better yet, fighting _for_ her. How is it possible that just by knowing that she was his child he felt like he'd do anything for her? He barely knew her, yet he was sure that he would give his life for her.

Thinking of Misaki, of course, made him think of Rin. He knew that he loved her, but did she love him? Did she want to spend the rest of their lives together in Konoha like he did? Or did she want to continue traveling around the world with her -their- children, like she had been doing before? What did Misaki and Yuuto want to do? Did they even want anything to do with him? Did they want to stay in Konoha? Did they want to travel? Would he be okay with it if they left?

All of these thoughts were swirling in his head. Questions that he didn't have the answers to. Speculations that could be true or could be completely wrong. All that he knew were his feelings. He was in love with Rin, he loved Misaki and Yuuto unconditionally, he wanted to stay in Konoha to keep an eye on his favorite students, with Rin. He wanted Misaki and Yuuto to stay with them, but would understand if that wasn't what they wanted to do.

He had no more answers. To get them he would have to talk to Rin, Misaki, and Yuuto to know what they wanted to do, and how they fit with what he wanted to do. But first he had to watch the exams to make sure that Yuuto didn't die before he could ask him.

--

Yuuto sighed as he watched Suigetsu fight Chou. He wasn't really interested in it, after watching his sister's fight, but he did have to admit that Suigetsu needed to keep on his toes to fight the sand kunoichi. She was very surprising, unleashing attacks that had nothing to do with each other. One second it was a barrage of taijutsu, then a water jutsu, of all things. Yeah, this fight would be very interesting if he wasn't so preoccupied.

Thinking was one of the things that Yuuto did best. He could sit and think or read for hours on end without getting bored. But right now all of his thoughts were really getting on his nerves. He wished that he could just shut off his thoughts for a while, but for some reason, his brain wouldn't let him. A few months ago the person taking over his thoughts probably would have been Sakura and he would have welcomed them, but now, with the whole thing with his mom and Kakashi he _wished_ that was all that he was thinking about.

He still wasn't sure about how he felt about Kakashi. On one hand, he was happy that his mom was happy. But on the other...he was fine with his life before Kakashi was a part of it. He was happy traveling all over the world and helping people, learning new and strange jutsu, and meeting so many interesting people. He knew that if his mom and Kakashi stayed together they would live in Konoha for good, and he really wasn't sure how he felt about that.

He didn't want to leave Sakura. Sakura was the best thing that had happened to him in, well, forever. She was sweet and kind and wonderful, and had a temper and didn't hesitate to punch someone out for being a baka. In other words, she was perfect. Leaving her would kill him, but he knew that he couldn't stay in Konoha forever. He would figure something out.

He was kind of worried about Misaki. He knew that she liked Sasuke, hell, everyone knew that she liked Sasuke. Well, except for maybe Sasuke. But what if Sasuke didn't like her? Sasuke just didn't seem like the type of guy to get serious with someone. He was afraid that Misaki would get hurt, and he really didn't want to see that happen. He made a mental note to ask Sasuke about how he felt. Even if it might sign his death warrant, it was his duty as Misaki's brother, and he would do it for her.

He watched the final legs of the fight. It was clear that the sand konoichi had already won, but Suigetsu wasn't going down without a fight. He was mostly on defense now, only trying to throw a few offensive moves in here and there. With one final jutsu from Chou the fight was over. Suigetsu had lost, but was only unconcious, not dead. He felt bad for the former sound nin, but knew that he still had a chance at becoming a chuunin.

Chou and Suigetsu were both led out on strechers, as Chou had clapsed moments after she was declared the winner. Yuuto knew what was coming next: his turn. Somehow he could feel it. HIs instincts were correct. Genma called he and his oppenent, Hitomi, down to the ground.

Hitomi literally skipped over to him, her pink hair streaming behind her and her piercing pink eyes shining with excitment. "Hi Yuuto!"

she called. "I'm Hitomi! Do you want to be my friend?" she asked in the tone and demeanor of a young girl. Yuuto only had time to blink at her in something close to atonishment before Genma called "Go."

* * *

**Yay! A long one! We tried our best with Misaki's fight, we really did, so we're sorry if it wasn't amazing. We both agreed that if we ever write another fanfic there will be NO FIGHTING! Fights are definitely the hardest thing to write...and we have two more. Yes, we are going to write Yuuto's and Sasuke's fights, no we aren't writing any more than that =D. We hope that you enjoyed the look into Kakashi and Yuuto's minds. One of our reviewers pointed out that Yuuto wasn't really featured in this story much, so we're trying to fix that. We really appreciate your reviews and constructive criticism, so keep it coming! Looking at the story and where it's going right now, it looks like there will only be another 4 or 5 chapters till the end. We'll let you know when we're sure. Thanks for reading and please review!**

**thebookwormandtheskater**


End file.
